STRIDULATION BY WORKERS OF THE ANT, 
LEPTOTHORAX MUSCORUM (NYLANDER) 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE).* 
By R. J- Stuart and P. D. Bell 
Department of Zoology, 
Erindale College, 
University of Toronto, 
Mississauga, Ontario 
L5L 1C6 Canada 
Introduction 
Many ponerine, myrmicine and pseudomyrmecine ants possess 
an abdominal stridulatory apparatus (Markl, 1973) of the type first 
described by Landois in 1874. The file (pars stridens) consists of a 
series of fine, regular, transverse striations, and is located medially 
on the anterior portion of the fourth abdominal tergite. The 
posterior edge of the preceding tergite serves as the scraper (plec¬ 
trum), and stridulation is effected by dorso-ventral movements of 
the gaster which telescope the pars stridens beneath the plectrum. 
Exceptions to this typical arrangement have been documented by 
Sharp (1893), Marcus and Marcus (1951) and Taylor (1978). 
Ant stridulation produces a substrate-borne vibratory signal, 
which is accompanied by an acoustic component in larger species 
(Dumortier, 1963). However, ants are not known to hear airborne 
sound, and it is the substrate-borne component of this signal which 
is thought to function in communication (Haskins and Enzmann, 
1938; Markl, 1968, 1970). In Ana cephalotes, three groups of 
campaniform sensilla at the joint between the trochanter and femur 
are apparently responsible for vibration reception (Markl, 1970). 
Ant stridulation occurs in a variety of contexts and, although 
various effects have been attributed to this signal (see review in 
Dumortier, 1963), few have been demonstrated (Markl, 1965, 1967; 
Markl et al„ 1977; Markl and Holldobler, 1978). Furthermore, most 
previous authors have investigated stridulation in a particular 
context, in one or a few species, and there is little appreciation of 
how species specific some of the documented contexts may be, or in 
* Manuscript received by the editor November 28, 1980. 
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