Chemical Signature and Reproductive Status in the Facultatively Polygynous ant Pachycondyla Verenae Sophie E. F. Evison & Ronara S. Ferreira & Patrizia D’Ettorre & Dominique Fresneau & Chantal Poteaux Received: 12 April 2012 / Revised: 23 September 2012 / Accepted: 2 October 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012 Abstract In insects, cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) gener- ally are used as cues and signals for within colony process- es, such as signaling reproductive status, and between colony processes, such as colony membership. We exam- ined CHC profiles of the facultatively polygynous ant Pachycondyla verenae in order to identify chemical signals of reproductive queens within colonies containing many gynes. Colonies of P. verenae, belonging to two different members of a complex of morphospecies, were collected from three geographic localities within South America. We also tested whether CHC profiles differed between geo- graphic localities and morphospecies. We found three alkenes, two isomers of pentacosene and heptacosene, which were more abundant in CHC profiles of reproductive queens of this morphospecies complex. When we tested whether these differences were consistent across geographic localities, we found the abundance of these alkenes differed according to morphospecies, with the isomers of pentaco- sene being more abundant in queens from morph one, and heptacosene being more abundant in queens from morph two. Our study has given further insight into the mecha- nisms behind maintenance of reproductive dominance, and has demonstrated that chemical signatures associated with reproductive status in Pachycondyla verenae are not con- served within this species complex. Keywords Fertility signal . Cuticular hydrocarbons . Morphospecies . Chemotaxonomy Introduction Animals living in societies need efficient communication systems to coordinate social interactions and protect group resources from competitors and parasites. Ants and other social insects have evolved advanced societies, which are protected by efficient recognition systems based on chemi- cal cues (reviewed by d’Ettorre and Lenoir, 2010). Indeed, social insects live in a world of odors; over 100 exocrine glands that send a multitude of chemical messages regulat- ing colony life and reproduction have been characterized in social insects (Billen, 2004). Discrimination between friends and foes (nestmates and non-nestmates) is assured by colony-specific body odor, a mixture of cuticular hydro- carbons (CHCs), the main cues used in social insect nest- mate recognition (d’Ettorre and Lenoir, 2010). These cues also play an important role in the processes of within-colony recognition, such as signaling of social status, queen fertil- ity, and task allocation (Greene and Gordon, 2003; Smith et al., 2009; van Zweden, 2010). Typically, social insect colonies contain two castes: re- productive queens and non-reproductive workers. The term ‘gyne’ refers to potential queens that are unmated or repro- ductively inhibited, whereas ‘queen’ refers to a reigning Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10886-012-0195-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. E. F. Evison : R. S. Ferreira : P. D’Ettorre : D. Fresneau : C. Poteaux Laboratoire d’Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée, EA 4443, Université Paris 13, 99 avenue J.-B. Clément, 93430 Villetaneuse, France S. E. F. Evison (*) Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK e-mail: s.evison@hotmail.co.uk J Chem Ecol DOI 10.1007/s10886-012-0195-6