Abstract
In laboratory trail-following bioassays of Argentine ant workers, Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr), the geometric isomer, (E)-9-hexadecenal, of the trail pheromone component (Z)-9-hexadecenal elicited insignificant trail following as did the potentially more stable formate analogs, (Z)-7-tetradecenyl formate, (E)-7-tetradecenyl formate, and tetradecyl formate. Further, in direct choice tests, workers showed no preference for gaster extract trails (0.002 ant equiv/cm) over trails of (Z)-9-hexadecenal (0.2 ng/cm). Moreover, a 10-fold increase in synthetic trail concentration to 2.0 ng/cm caused (Z)-9-hexadecenal trails to be significantly preferred over gaster extract trails by trail-following ants.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1057-1063 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Chemical Ecology |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 1982 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Ecology
- Biochemistry
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)