Trail Pheromone of the Argentine Ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Figure 2
Chemical trails left by recruiting and trail-following ants during foraging and nest relocation.
(A) Chromatograms of methylene chloride extracts taken from a control wire (top) and from the wires used by ants during foraging (second) and nest relocation (third). A chromatogram obtained from a SPME fiber that was used as a foraging trail is also shown (bottom). Dolichodial (Dol) and iridomyrmecin (Irid) were consistently detected on these trails (arrows). (Z)-9-hexadecenal (not detected) would have eluted with retention time of 16.03 min. (B) Chemical structures of dolichodial and iridomyrmecin, with relative configurations as shown. The absolute configurations were not determined.