THIEF ANTS HAVE REDUCED QUANTITIES OF CUTICULAR COMPOUNDS IN A PONERINE ANT, ECTATOMMA-RUIDUM

Workers of a tropical ponerine ant, Ectatomma ruidum (Roger), exhibit a system of intercolonial thievery for food; thief ants enter conspeci fic colonies, intercept food, and carry it to their own colony. We ana lysed thief ants, ants from the thief's colony, and ants from the colo ny being robbed to determine if changes in cuticular profiles could fa cilitate entry by thieves into a target colony. Thief ants have signif icantly lower total quantities of dichloromethane-soluble cuticular co mpounds than non-thieves. The reduction in cuticular compounds on thie ves suggests that thievery is facilitated by inhibition of either synt hesis or acquisition of its home colony's recognition cues. Five of th e fifteen compounds differed significantly in their relative proportio n among colonies. Principal components analysis lends support to the h ypothesis that both inhibition of a thief's home colony cues and acqui sition of its target colony's cues play a role in successful thievery.