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11 - Breaking the code: illicit signalers and receivers of semiochemicals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

Tristram D. Wyatt
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Any pheromone or chemical recognition system described in the other 12 chapters in this book could potentially be exploited by other organisms, whether conspecifics or predators and parasites. Exploitation can take many forms, from parasitoid flies eavesdropping the alarm pheromones of fighting ants (Mathis & Philpott 2012), to the production of insect sex pheromone molecules by orchids to deceive male bees and wasps into becoming inadvertent pollinators (Gaskett 2011). However, not all relationships involve exploitation: mutualistic relationships, such as those between sea anemones and anemonefish, can also involve chemical cues. Inter-specific semiochemicals (allelochemicals) in mutualistic relationships are called synomones; those used in active deception, allomones, and when eavesdropped, kairomones (see Table 11.1 and Table 1.1 for more details).

Given the subtleties revealed in other chapters about chemical communication within species, we should expect that inter-specific interactions will be no less extraordinary. Many of the examples are of insect interactions, particularly those between ants and their guests and parasites. This is largely because we know most about chemical communication in insects. Investigation of the chemical ecology of other animals in similar detail is likely to reveal a near ubiquitous role of chemical cues in other inter-specific relationships. Chemical detection and interaction of inter-specific partners and enemies may turn out to be the rule rather than the exception.

Type
Chapter
Information
Pheromones and Animal Behavior
Chemical Signals and Signatures
, pp. 244 - 259
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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