Chemical Mimicry as an Integrating Mechanism: Cuticular Hydrocarbons of a Termitophile and Its Host
Abstract
The staphylinid beetle Trichopsenius frosti Seevers has the same cuticular hydrocarbons as those of its host termite Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) and it biosynthesizes them. These cuticular hydrocarbons probably serve as the primary mechanism by which Trichopsenius frosti integrates itself into the termite colony.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- October 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.210.4468.431
- Bibcode:
- 1980Sci...210..431H