| taste-enhancing effects of glycine on the sweetness of glucose: a gustatory aspect of symbiosis between the ant, camponotus japonicus, and the larvae of the lycaenid butterfly, niphanda fusca. | the lycaenid butterfly, niphanda fusca, has a parasitic relationship with its host ant, camponotus japonicus: the caterpillars may use chemical mimicry to enter the ant nest where they are fed mouth-to-mouth by the adult ants until pupation. nevertheless, larvae offer their host ants a nutritious secretion that contains 160 mm glucose and 43 mm glycine. using glucose and glycine mixture as artificial secretions, we investigated the gustatory effect of glucose and/or glycine on the ants. glycine ... | 2001 | 11595675 |
| a sensitive and reliable assay for queen discrimination ability in laboratory-reared workers of the ant camponotus japonicus. | the queen discrimination abilities of laboratory-reared camponotus japonicus workers were examined individually by allowing them to carry their nestmate larvae toward either the mother queen or an alien queen. source colonies had been reared under controlled conditions from founding queens and maintained at small size (< or = 10 workers each). fifty-two of fifty-four workers raised in these eight different colonies carried nestmate larvae to the mother queen, and never carried them to the alien ... | 2002 | 12362055 |
| positive and negative effects of leaf shelters on herbivorous insects: linking multiple herbivore species on a willow. | we experimentally examined the effects on other herbivorous insects of leaf shelters constructed by lepidopteran larvae on a willow, salix miyabeana. several insect species occupied the vacant leaf shelters. our experiment using artificial leaf shelters showed that the number of aphids increased with the number of artificial leaf shelters on a shoot, as did the numbers of three ant species ( camponotus japonicus, lasius hayashi, and myrmica jessensis) that entered leaf shelters to collect aphid ... | 2003 | 12768405 |
| queen discrimination ability of ant workers (camponotus japonicus) coincides with brain maturation. | discrimination behavior is a fundamental feature of social insects, and the discrimination ability allows the individual to be integrated into the colony. to address the brain functions associated with this task, which underlies intraspecific communication, i examined the ability to discriminate queens in young workers of the ant camponotus japonicus together with a histological analysis of their brains. workers raised in a foster colony were tested with respect to their ability to discriminate ... | 2003 | 12907860 |
| ant nestmate and non-nestmate discrimination by a chemosensory sensillum. | in animal societies, chemical communication plays an important role in conflict and cooperation. for ants, cuticular hydrocarbon (chc) blends produced by non-nestmates elicit overt aggression. we describe a sensory sensillum on the antennae of the carpenter ant camponotus japonicus that functions in nestmate discrimination. this sensillum is multiporous and responds only to non-nestmate chc blends. this suggests a role for a peripheral recognition mechanism in detecting colony-specific chemical ... | 2005 | 15947139 |
| postembryonic development of the mushroom bodies in the ant, camponotus japonicus. | mushroom bodies (mb) are insect brain centers involved in learning and other complex behaviors and they are particularly large in ants. we describe the larval and pupal development of the mb in the carpenter ant, camponotus japonicus. based on morphological cues, we characterized the stages of preimaginal development of worker ants. we then describe morphological changes and neurogenesis underlying the mb development. kenyon cells are produced in a proliferation cluster formed by symmetrical div ... | 2005 | 16082163 |
| discovery of specific tryptophan hydroxylase in the brain of the beetle harmonia axyridis. | rabbit anti-serotonin and mouse monoclonal anti-tryptophan hydroxylase antisera were applied on the brain sections of the beetle harmonia axyridis, butterfly childrena zenobia, moth antheraea pernyi and ant camponotus japonicus, using the streptavidin-peroxidase immunohistochemical method and colophony-paraffin embedded section technique. results revealed that all the experimental insects showed notable serotonin-like immunoreactivity in the brain. however, only the brain sections of the beetle ... | 2006 | 16426586 |
| ecdysone receptor expression in developing and adult mushroom bodies of the ant camponotus japonicus. | mushroom bodies (mbs) are insect brain centers involved in sensory integration and memory formation. in social hymenoptera, mbs are large and comprise larger number of kenyon cells and have repeatedly been implied to underlie the social behaviors. in the present study, to facilitate our understanding of the neural basis of social behaviors, two complementary dnas (cdnas) encoding presumed ecdysone receptor isoforms (cjecr-a and cjecr-alpha) were identified in the developing brains of the carpent ... | 2007 | 17703321 |
| serotonin-immunoreactive neurons in the antennal sensory system of the brain in the carpenter ant, camponotus japonicus. | social hymenoptera such as ants or honeybees are known for their extensive behavioral repertories and plasticity. neurons containing biogenic amines appear to play a major role in controlling behavioral plasticity in these insects. here we describe the morphology of prominent serotonin-immunoreactive neurons of the antennal sensory system in the brain of an ant, camponotus japonicus. immunoreactive fibers were distributed throughout the brain and the subesophageal ganglion (sog). the complete pr ... | 2007 | 18217492 |
| sexual dimorphism in the antennal lobe of the ant camponotus japonicus. | the carpenter ant, a social hymenopteran, has a highly elaborated antennal chemosensory system that is used for chemical communication in social life. the glomeruli in the antennal lobe are the first relay stations where sensory neurons synapse onto interneurons. the system is functionally and structurally similar to the olfactory bulbs of vertebrates. using three-dimensional reconstruction of glomeruli and subsequent morphometric analyses, we found sexual dimorphism of the antennal lobe glomeru ... | 2008 | 18533751 |
| gustatory synergism in ants mediates a species-specific symbiosis with lycaenid butterflies. | here we show that larvae of the lycaenid butterfly niphanda fusca secrete droplets containing trehalose and glycine. these droplets attract the larva's host ants camponotus japonicus, which collect and protect the larvae. we comparatively investigated gustatory preference for trehalose, glycine or a mixture of the two between host (c. japonicus) and non-host (camponotus obscuripes) species of ants in behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. glycine itself induced no taste sensation in ei ... | 2008 | 18830605 |
| chemical disguise as particular caste of host ants in the ant inquiline parasite niphanda fusca (lepidoptera: lycaenidae). | the exploitation of parental care is common in avian and insect 'cuckoos' and these species engage in a coevolutionary arms race. caterpillars of the lycaenid butterfly niphanda fusca develop as parasites inside the nests of host ants (camponotus japonicus) where they grow by feeding on the worker trophallaxis. we hypothesized that n. fusca caterpillars chemically mimic host larvae, or some particular castes of the host ant, so that the caterpillars are accepted and cared for by the host workers ... | 2009 | 18842547 |
| sex-specific antennal sensory system in the ant camponotus japonicus: structure and distribution of sensilla on the flagellum. | the antennae are a critically important component of the ant's highly elaborated chemical communication systems. however, our understanding of the organization of the sensory systems on the antennae of ants, from peripheral receptors to central and output systems, is poorly understood. consequently, we have used scanning electron and confocal laser microscopy to create virtually complete maps of the structure, numbers of sensory neurons, and distribution patterns of all types of external sensill ... | 2009 | 19763622 |
| sex-specific antennal sensory system in the ant camponotus japonicus: glomerular organizations of antennal lobes. | ants have well-developed chemosensory systems for social lives. the goal of our study is to understand the functional organization of the ant chemosensory system based on caste- and sex-specific differences. here we describe the common and sex-specific glomerular organizations in the primary olfactory center, the antennal lobe of the carpenter ant camponotus japonicus. differential labeling of the two antennal nerves revealed distinct glomerular clusters innervated by seven sensory tracts (t1-t7 ... | 2010 | 20437523 |
| higher brain centers for social tasks in worker ants, camponotus japonicus. | ants, eusocial insects, have highly elaborate chemical communication systems using a wide variety of pheromones. in the carpenter ant, camponotus japonicus, workers and queens equip the female-specific basiconic sensilla on antennae. the antennal lobe, the primary processing center, in female carpenter ants contains about 480 glomeruli which are divided into seven groups (t1-t7 glomeruli) based on sensory afferent tracts. the axons of sensory neurons in basiconic sensilla are thought to project ... | 2011 | 22102363 |
| bacteria associated with gut lumen of camponotus japonicus mayr. | camponotus ants harbor the obligate intracellular endosymbiont blochmannia in their midgut bacteriocytes, but little is known about intestinal bacteria living in the gut lumen. in this paper we reported the results of a survey of the intestinal microflora of camponotus japonicus mayr based on small-subunit rrna genes (16s rrnas) polymerase chain reaction (pcr)-restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis of worker guts. from 107 clones, 11 different restriction fragment-length polymorphism ... | 2011 | 22217755 |