1983/12/02 by Norman F. Carlin, Bert Hölldobler · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Biology #Communication #Ecology #Inclusive fitness #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Interspecific competition #Kin recognition #Odor #Plant and animal studies #Psychology #Zoology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.222.4627.1027
openalex publication_date 1983/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Recognition of nestmates and discrimination against aliens is the rule in the social insects. The principal mechanism of nestmate recognition in carpenter ants (Camponotus) appears to be odor labels or "discriminators" that originate from the queen and are distributed among, and learned by, all adult colony members. The acquired odor labels are sufficiently powerful to produce indiscriminate acceptance among workers of different species raised together in artificially mixed colonies and rejection of genetic sisters reared by different heterospecific queens.