The Pied Piper: A Parasitic Beetle's Melodies Modulate Ant Behaviours

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 8;10(7):e0130541. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130541. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Ants use various communication channels to regulate their social organisation. The main channel that drives almost all the ants' activities and behaviours is the chemical one, but it is long acknowledged that the acoustic channel also plays an important role. However, very little is known regarding exploitation of the acoustical channel by myrmecophile parasites to infiltrate the ant society. Among social parasites, the ant nest beetles (Paussus) are obligate myrmecophiles able to move throughout the colony at will and prey on the ants, surprisingly never eliciting aggression from the colonies. It has been recently postulated that stridulatory organs in Paussus might be evolved as an acoustic mechanism to interact with ants. Here, we survey the role of acoustic signals employed in the Paussus beetle-Pheidole ant system. Ants parasitised by Paussus beetles produce caste-specific stridulations. We found that Paussus can "speak" three different "languages", each similar to sounds produced by different ant castes (workers, soldiers, queen). Playback experiments were used to test how host ants respond to the sounds emitted by Paussus. Our data suggest that, by mimicking the stridulations of the queen, Paussus is able to dupe the workers of its host and to be treated as royalty. This is the first report of acoustic mimicry in a beetle parasite of ants.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustics
  • Animal Communication*
  • Animals
  • Ants / parasitology*
  • Ants / physiology*
  • Coleoptera / physiology*
  • Female
  • Male
  • Social Behavior
  • Sound

Grants and funding

Collecting field trip was possible thanks to ADG research grants (CLAR Di Giulio, University Roma Tre, Roma, IT) to ADG. Research was conducted within the project CLIMIT funded through the FP6 BiodivERsA Eranet and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Part of the research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) within the project “A multitaxa approach to study the impact of climate change on the biodiversity of Italian ecosystems” to EB. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.