TERGAL AND STERNAL GLANDS IN MALE ANTS* 
By Bert HOlldobler and Hiltrud Engel-Siegel 
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, 
MCZ-Laboratories, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
Introduction: 
Several recent morphological investigations have uncovered a 
variety of hitherto unknown or neglected exocrine glandular struc- 
tures in ant workers (Holldobler and Haskins 1977; Holldobler and 
Engel 1978; Kugler 1978; Jessen et al 1979; Holldobler et al 1982; 
Holldobler 1982; Jessen and Maschwitz in press). The behavioral 
functions of several of these glands have already been determined 
(For review see Holldobler 1982). 
These studies dealt almost exclusively with ant females and except 
for the results of Janet’s (1902) classical histological investigations 
of the internal anatomy of males of Myrmica rubra, nothing is 
known about exocrine glandular structures in the gaster of ant 
males. Since we consider this information important not only for a 
further analysis of the behavior of ant males, but especially for our 
understanding of the evolution of pheromone glands and chemical 
communcation in ants, we have undertaken a histological study of 
exocrine glandular structures in ant males. In this paper we present 
a survey of the abdominal glands not directly associated with the 
gonads. The purpose of this paper is not to give detailed descriptions 
of each gland found, but rather to present a comparative account of 
abdominal glands detected in representative species in the different 
subfamilies. 
Materials and Methods: 
For histological investigations live specimens were fixed in alco- 
holic Bouin or Carnoy (Romeis 1948), embedded in methyl methac- 
rylate, and sectioned 8 /x thick with a D-profile steel knife on a Jung 
Tetrander I microtome (Rathmayer 1962). The staining was Azan 
(Heidenhain). Especially small objects were embedded in a water 
soluble plastic (JB-4 embedding kit. Polysciences, Inc., Pennsyl- 
* Manuscript received by the editor May 1, 1982 
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