Chemical warfare in termites
Abstract
The rapid development of analytical methods in the last four decades has led to the discovery of a fascinating diversity of defensive chemicals used by termites. The last exhaustive review on termite defensive chemicals was published by G.D. Prestwich in 1984. In this text, we aim to fill the gap of the past 25 years and overview all of the relevant primary sources about the chemistry of termite defense (126 original papers, see Fig. 1 and online supplementary material) along with related biological aspects, such as the anatomy of defensive glands and their functional mechanisms, alarm communication, and the evolutionary significance of these defensive elements.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Insect Physiology
- Pub Date:
- January 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2010.02.012
- Bibcode:
- 2010JInsP..56.1012S
- Keywords:
-
- Isoptera;
- Chemical defense;
- Exocrine gland;
- Frontal gland