PSYCHE 
Vol. 95 
1988 
No. 3-4 
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATION IN MERANOPLUS 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE)* 
By Bert Holldobler 
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology 
Harvard University 
Cambridge, Mass. 02138, U.S.A. 
Introduction 
The chemical communication systems of social insects, and in 
particular of ants, has been intensively studied by many research 
groups during the past 25 years. These studies included the identifi- 
cation and description of exocrine glands involved in pheromone 
production (see Holldobler and Engel, 1978; Holldobler, 1982; 
Jessen et al 1979; Billen, 1987), the investigation of the natural 
product chemistry of pheromones (see Blum, 1982; Morgan, 1984; 
Attygalle and Morgan, 1985), and the study of the underlying 
behavioral mechanisms and evolution of chemical communication 
(see Holldobler, 1978; 1984; Buschinger and Maschwitz, 1984). 
Nevertheless, there are some groups of ants that have been almost 
completely neglected by behavioral biologists in spite of the fact that 
they are relatively abundant and probably ecologically important. 
One such group is the genus Meranoplus, which is very common in 
Australia. In this paper I report the results of my experimental 
studies of the communication behavior of several Australian Mera- 
noplus species. -=****' 
* 
Manuscript received by the editor October 27, 1988. 
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