Active trail pheromone compounds and trail following in the ant Atta sexdens sexdens (Hymenoptera Formicidae)

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Abstract
When medium workers of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens sexdens are presented with the compounds 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine and methyl 4-methylpyrrole-2-carboxylate in various proportions in a trail-following bioassay, they show the highest performance for the 14:1 mixture over other mixtures or the pure compounds. This preferential mixture corresponds with the proportion of both compounds described for the venom gland, which is the source of the natural trail pheromone in these leafcutting ants.