%0 Journal Article
%T An invasive ant species able to counterattack marabunta raids
%A Dejean, A.
%A Azémar, F.
%A Roux, O.
%J Comptes Rendus Biologies
%D 2014
%V 337
%N 7-8
%I Elsevier Masson SAS
%@ 17683238 (Issn)
%F Dejean_etal2014
%O Export Date: 1 September 2014; Coden: Crboc; Correspondence Address: Dejean, A.; CNRS UMR 8172, Écologie des Forêts de Guyane, BP 316, 97379 Kourou cedex, France; email: alain.dejean@wanadoo.fr
%O exported from refbase (http://php.ecofog.gf/refbase/show.php?record=557), last updated on Mon, 01 Sep 2014 18:30:57 -0300
%X In the Neotropics where it was introduced, the invasive ant Pheidole megacephala counterattacked raids by the army ants Eciton burchellii or E. hamatum. The Eciton workers that returned to their bivouac were attacked and spread-eagled and most of them killed by their outgoing colony mates. Little by little the zone where returning and outgoing Eciton workers encountered one another moved away from the Pheidole nest which was no longer attacked, so that most of the colony was spared. Using a water-based technique rounded out by bioassays, we show that Pheidole compounds were transferred onto the Eciton cuticle during the counterattacks, so that outgoing workers do not recognize returning colony mates, likely perceived as potential prey. Because P. megacephala is an introduced African species, this kind of protection, which cannot be the result of coevolutive processes, corresponds to a kind of by-product due to its aggressiveness during colony defence. © 2014 Académie des sciences.
%K Antipredation
%K Army ants
%K Colony mate recognition
%K Eciton
%K Pheidole
%K aggression
%K ant
%K article
%K bioassay
%K Eciton burchellii
%K Eciton hamatum
%K emulsion
%K insect society
%K mass fragmentography
%K Neotropics
%K nonhuman
%K Pheidole megacephala
%U http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84905713166&partnerID=40&md5=c4793b1bbcf9b0d7a41f7c5ac6291a7c
%P 475-479