"Alarm pheromones" refers to chemical signals released by certain animals, such as insects or rodents, when they feel threatened or in danger. These signals are used to alert other members of their species to potential threats and to trigger a coordinated response or defensive behavior.
Full definition
Release
of alarm pheromones near a hive or swarm may attract other bees to the location, where they will likewise exhibit defensive behaviors until there is no longer a threat (typically because the victim has either fled or been killed).
To resolve the mystery around their complex defensive behavior, a Canadian research team, led by Dr. Sean McCann, Simon Fraser University, have used simple components to develop and construct a device that consequently helped them to locate the species - specific
alarm pheromones in three wasp groups.
Several social
wasp alarm pheromones have been discovered, and most of these have been detected in the venom sacs of the wasps.
«We developed a new and standardized method to
evaluate alarm pheromone activity in yellowjackets and other social wasps that is inexpensive and easy to use.
One way the social wasps have found to increase the efficiency of their defence is through chemical signals,
called alarm pheromones, which are used to rouse the colony to action and mark intruders for attack.
The stinger's injection of apitoxin into the victim is accompanied by the release
of alarm pheromones, a process which is accelerated if the bee is fatally injured.
«This is the first time I've seen
an alarm pheromone used as a sexual one,» says Ryne.
The team discovered that the activation of these CRH neurons causes the release of a chemical signal, an «
alarm pheromone», from the mouse that alerts the partner.
«Call for arms and stings: Social wasps use
alarm pheromones to coordinate their attacks.»
The scientist have used this new method to figure whether three species of yellow jackets (the western yellow jacket, the common yellow jacket and the German yellow jacket) have
alarm pheromones, and whether each species is able to recognize each of the alarm pheromones of the rest.
«We found evidence for
alarm pheromones in all three species, and that each species recognizes and responds to the other species» alarm pheromones in similar ways,» say the researchers.
«It makes sense that wasps can recognize
the alarm pheromones of other species, because it would be advantageous to be able to detect a pheromone - marked predator that has attacked other wasps nearby and start stinging it to drive it away before it finds their own colony,» conclude the authors.
In addition to aggregation pheromones, which prompt insects of the same species to come together, or
alarm pheromones, which warn conspecifics about imminent danger, sex pheromones are quite well - known.
«In large laboratory tanks, ruffe avoid
the alarm pheromone upon contact,» Sorensen says.
The active chemical in an aphid's
alarm pheromone is (E)- beta - farnesene — one of a group of a plant metabolites, known as terpenoids.
The parasite was especially lethal to very small toads — so transforming from the tadpole stage at a small size (as happens if the tadpoles are exposed to
the alarm pheromone) makes the baby toads really vulnerable to the lungworm.