PSYCHE 
Vol. 85 December, 1978 
No. 4 
TERGAL AND STERNAL GLANDS IN ANTS* 
By Bert Holldobler and Hiltrud Engel 
Department of Biology 
MCZ Laboratories, Harvard University 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 
Introduction 
Chemical signals, or pheromones as they are generally called, play 
a central role in the complex communication system of ant societies. 
During the last 20 years a number of exocrine glands have been 
identified as the anatomical sources for a diversity of pheromones 
which mediate sexual and social behavior in ants (for reviews see 
Wilson 1971, Blum 1977, Holldobler 1978). 
In recent years, however, several hitherto unknown exocrine 
glandular structures have been discovered in ants and the behavioral 
functions of some of them have already been determined. In this 
paper we will review these findings and will report the new results of 
our comparative morphological study of tergal and sternal glands in 
ants. 
Material and Methods 
For histological investigations live specimens were fixed in alco- 
holic Bouin (Dubosqu Brasil) or Carnoy (Romeis 1948), embedded 
in methyl methacrylate, and sectioned 8 /i thick with a Jung 
Tetrander I microtome (Rathmayer 1962). The staining was Azan 
(Heidenhain). The SEM pictures were taken with an AMR 1000 A 
Scanning Electron Microscope. For some of the species which could 
only be identified to the generic level, the respective number is given 
of the voucher specimens, which are deposited in the ant collection 
of the MCZ (Harvard University). 
* Manuscript received by the editor May 3, 1979. 
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