Chemical communication in insects

Among the many functions of chemical communication are attracting mates, aggregating conspecific individuals of both sexes, deterring other individuals from approaching, announcing a new food source, marking a trail, recognizing nest-mates, marking territory and triggering aggression.

[2] By 1990, Mahmoud Ali and David Morgan noted that the field had grown too large to review comprehensively.

[1] In addition to the use of means such as making sounds, generating light, and touch for communication, a wide range of insects have evolved chemical signals, semiochemicals.

[3] Cuticular hydrocarbons are nonstructural materials produced and secreted to the cuticle surface to fight desiccation and pathogens.

[6] Eusocial insects including ants, termites, bees, and social wasps produce pheromones from several types of exocrine gland.

[7] The type of mimicry can be Batesian, in which the mimic gains protection by resembling a harmful insect;[8] it can also be Müllerian, in which different well-defended insects resemble each other, in this case chemically, to minimise losses to predators;[9] aggressive, enabling a predatory mimic to approach its prey;[10] or reproductive, as in Pouyannian mimicry, when an orchid chemically (and visually) resembles a pollinator such as a bee or wasp, which tries to copulate with the flower, transferring pollen in the process.