Preliminary identification and function of queen pheromones in Reticulitermes subterranean termites

Despite extensive work on the chemical communication in insect societies, little is known about queen pheromones of termites. Recently, the first termite queen pheromones were identified from a subterranean termite and were shown to inhibit caste differentiation of workers and other colony members. These results have profound implications for understanding the mechanisms of colony maintenance and potential control of these species as pests. Continued study of termite pheromones will help to characterize termite chemical communication and reproductive ecology, and should provide further insight to their eusocial behavior as well as their success as decomposers in forest ecosystems. Our research focuses on the subterranean termites, Reticulitermes flavipes and R. virginicus, which are common across the eastern and central United States where they live in dead, rotting wood and are important pests in human structures. We combined collection and chemical analysis of volatile queen compounds with bioassays to detect active substances and test their biological effects in our focal species. Volatile compounds emitted by reproductive individuals collected from field and lab-reared colonies were analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to identify volatile chemicals. Bioassays using secondary reproductives and a synthetic pheromone were performed to assess pheromone function in the termites. Results of these on-going analyses will be presented.