Anne-Geneviève Bagnères

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE) Montpellier

For thousands of years, humans have domesticated different plants by selecting for particular characters, often affecting less-known traits, including the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by these plants for defense or reproduction. The fig tree Ficus carica has a very wide range of varieties in the Mediterranean region and is selected for...

Invasive species are permanently modifying the distribution and diversity of native species worldwide. For nearly two decades, a hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), has been spreading in Europe. Due to its marked invasiveness, this yellow-legged hornet is of great economic and ecological concern, mainly because of the damage...

The Oedipodinae subfamily is the most species-rich and numerically abundant group of Acrididae in Algeria. Here, genetic and chemical data were used to characterize the identities of six species: Oedipoda miniata mauritanica (Lucas, 1849); Acrotylus patruelis (Herrich-Shaeffer, 1838); A. insubricus insubricus (Scopoli, 1786); Sphingonotus (Neosphin...

Les espèces envahissantes sont de nouveaux constituants des écosystèmes et modifient en permanence la biodiversité, à toutes les échelles biologiques, et avec différents degrés de gravité. Originaire de Chine, le frelon à pattes jaunes, Vespa velutina nigrithorax (Lepeletier 1836), a été introduit accidentellement dans le sudouest de la France v...

As major communication signals, pheromones have long been studied. In colonial organisms such as social insects, volatile compounds play a crucial role in interspecific interactions by helping regulate colony behavior. In certain circumstances, it is desirable to detect or suppress insect populations, as invasive species. Management’s techniques ha...

As native ranges are often geographically structured, invasive species originating from a single source population only carry a fraction of the genetic diversity present in their native range. The invasion process is thus often associated with a drastic loss of genetic diversity resulting from a founder event. However, the fraction of diversity bro...

As native ranges are often geographically structured, invasive species originating from a single source population only carry a fraction of the genetic diversity present in their native range. This invasion pathway is thus often associated with a drastic loss of genetic diversity resulting from a founder event. However, the fraction of diversity br...

The co-evolutionary pathways followed by hosts and parasites strongly depend on the adaptive potential of antagonists and its underlying genetic architecture. Geographically structured populations of interacting species often experience local differences in the strength of reciprocal selection pressures, which can result in a geographic mosaic of c...

In the paper wasp Polistes dominula, cuticular hydrocarbons play a critical role to acquire information regarding conspecific individuals. However, the relationship between cuticular hydrocarbons, health status, and male sexually selected traits is poorly investigated. In this study, we characterized the cuticular hydrocarbon profile of adult male...

Brazil, home to one of the planet’s last great forests, is currently in trade negotiations with its second largest trading partner, the European Union (EU). We urge the EU to seize this critical opportunity to ensure that Brazil protects human rights and the environment. Brazil’s forests, wetlands, and savannas are crucial to a great diversity of I...

Termites are social insects that can also be major pests. A well-known problem species is the subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes. It is invasive in France and is thought to have arrived from Louisiana during the 18th century. While the putative source of French populations has been identified, little is known about how the termite spread...

Parental care is a major component of reproduction in social organisms, particularly during the foundation steps. Because investment into parental care is often costly, each parent is predicted to maximize its fitness by providing less care than its partner. However, this sexual conflict is expected to be low in species with lifelong monogamy, beca...

Brood and social parasites exploit the parental care of their host and often integrate into host colonies using different strategies at different moments during their life cycle. In social wasps, the obligate social parasite Polistes atrimandibularis, using chemical mimicry and chemical insignificance, avoids detection by its host, Polistes biglumi...

Les insectes sociaux (fourmis, termites, abeilles et guêpes) sont, avec peu d’autres espèces (humaine incluse), des espèces vivants en sociétés vraies. Ces sociétés sont fondées avant tout sur la communication pour entretenir les relations sociales. La communication la plus importante chez les insectes sociaux est chimique, par ailleurs la plus rép...

Urbanization often negatively impacts biological diversity. Some organisms, however, have traits that are preadapted to urban environments and thus may thrive. Reticulitermes flavipes is one such organism. Indigenous to the Eastern US, it has been introduced into multiple countries. In France, R. flavipes causes major damage to buildings. Although...

1. Being able to detect a predator before any physical contact is crucial for individual survival. Predator presence can be detected thanks to several types of signal, such as chemical cues. Chemical signals are produced by predators for their protection against desiccation, for their communication, or possibly as a side‐effect of their activity. I...

Reticulitermes flavipes is an invasive termite from North America that is found in several European countries, including France from north to south. It feeds on several timber species and can cause major damage when it infests lumber. Termites are urban pests: they are often found in and around towns and their expansion is closely linked to human a...

Biological invasions are among key factors of ecological changes, and social insects appear as highly successful invasive animals. Subterranean termites of the holarctic genus Reticulitermes are present in Europe with six native and one invasive (the nearctic R. flavipes) species. The species R. urbis shows a disjunct distribution in the Western Ba...

Social insects recognize their nestmates by means of a cuticular hydrocarbon signature shared by colony members, but how nest signature changes across time has been rarely tested in longitudinal studies and in the field. In social wasps, the chemical signature is also deposited on the nest surface, where it is used by newly emerged wasps as a refer...

The chemical signature of nests of P. biglumis parasitised by the social parasite P. atrimandibularis or unparasitized (mean values +- s.e.obtained by pooling data across the nesting season, n = 193 nest fragments. (DOCX)

The two sampling site: Montgènevre in red, Ferrere in purple. (DOCX)

Termites of the genus Reticulitermes are widespread invaders, particularly in urban habitats. Their cryptic and subterranean lifestyle makes them difficult to detect, and we know little about their colony dynamics over time. In this study we examined the persistence of Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) colonies in the city of Paris over a period of...

Colony foundation modes play a key role in social insect societies as they strongly impact colony survival. In subterranean termites, we do not yet know which factors most influence the early stages of colony foundation since studies on the topic are scarce. In the present study, we examined how variation in life-history traits can influence colony...

Invasive social insect populations that have been introduced to a new environment through a limited number of introduction events generally exhibit reduced variability in their chemical signatures (cuticular hydrocarbons) compared to native populations of the same species. The reduced variability in these major recognition cues could be caused by a...

This study presents research concerning subterranean termites found in the Centre-Val de Loire region. More specifically, we examined the geographical distribution of Reticulitermes flavipes, a globally invasive species. This work was conducted in collaboration with both social and life science specialists in order to better understand the factors...

Studies investigating host-parasite systems rarely deal with multispecies interactions, and mostly explore impacts on hosts as individuals. Much less is known about the effects at colony level, when parasitism involves host organisms that form societies. We surveyed the effect of an ectoparasitic fungus, Rickia wasmannii, on kin-discrimination abil...

Parental care is costly enough that species exist which exploit the parental care of other individuals to rear their own brood, as social parasites do among social insects. Intraspecific, facultative social parasites use the nest and worker force of another colony of the same species to rear their own young as a reproductive strategy alternative to...

The book features comparative perspectives on the field of chemical ecology, present and future, offered by scientists from a wide variety of disciplines. The scientists contributing to this book -biologists, ecologists, biochemists, chemists, biostatisticians - are interested in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems and work on life forms...

Table S1. Primers and PCR programs used for the different genetic analyses. Figure S1. Bayesian phylogenetic tree inferred from the mitochondrial COI‐COII concatenated sequences. Figure S2. Population structure of southwestern European Reticulitermes termites based on the analysis of 10 microsatellite loci at 15 locations (A‐O). Table S2. Table...

A long-standing goal of evolutionary biology is to understand how paleoclimatic and geological events shape the geographical distribution and genetic structure within and among species. Using a diverse set of markers (cuticular hydrocarbons, mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences, microsatellite loci), we studied Reticulitermes grassei and R. ban...

In population genetics studies, detecting and quantifying the distribution of genetic variation can help elucidate ecological and evolutionary processes. In social insects, the distribution of population-level genetic variability is generally linked to colony-level genetic structure. It is thus especially crucial to conduct complementary analyses o...

Varroa destructor (Vd) is a honeybee ectoparasite. Its original host is the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, but it has also become a severe, global threat to the European honeybee, Apis mellifera. Previous studies have shown that Varroa can mimic a host's cuticular hydrocarbons (HC), enabling the parasite to escape the hygienic behaviour of the host h...

Communication and social regulation are among the distinguishing features of termites: They are part of all basic aspects of termite biology, from ontogeny and caste differentiation to social behavior and cooperation. As in other highly social taxa, communication in termites predominantly relies on a complex network of chemical signals, which are c...

Factors promoting the establishment and colonization success of introduced populations in new environments constitute an important issue in biological invasions. In this context, the respective role of pre-adaptation and evolutionary changes during the invasion process is a key question that requires particular attention. The present study compared...

The genus Calliptamus contains swarming orthopterans that cause serious damage in Algerian agricultural systems. However, it remains difficult to identify species within this genus; a thorough understanding of the groups systematics and the utilization of novel taxonomic criteria are needed. We used morphological analysis along with two other metho...

Nestmate recognition is a common phenomenon in social insects that typically is mediated by cuticular hydrocarbons. Geographical variation in cuticular hydrocarbons has been observed, although the pattern of variation is not consistent across species and is usually related to the biology and ecology of the different species. Polistes biglumis (Hyme...

Termites are xylophagous insects well-known for their hierarchical organization and labour division between individuals which has permit them to be defined as eusocial insects. The latter organization is based on a highly optimized cast system. Workers take care of the colony by foraging, feeding other casts individuals and taking care of the brood...

Nestmate recognition codes show remarkable chemical complexity, involving multiple biochemical pathways. This complexity provides the opportunity to evaluate the ecological and social conditions that favor the evolution of complex signaling. We investigated how the chemical signatures of three populations of the social paper wasp Polistes biglumis...

Invasive species cause severe environmental and economic problems. The invasive success of social insects often appears to be related to their ability to adjust their social organization to new environments. To gain a better understanding of the biology of invasive termites, this study investigated the social organization of the subterranean termit...

Subterranean termites of the genus Reticulitermes are the most abundant termites in Europe. They play an important role in natural forest ecosystems but they are also significant pests that feed on wooden structures and buildings. Reticulitermes urbis Bagnères et al 2003, reported as invasive in West Europe, is a recently described species that has...

In social insects, colonies have exclusive memberships and residents promptly detect and reject non-nestmates. Blends of epicuticular hydrocarbons communicate colony affiliation, but the question remains how social insects use the complex information in the blends to discriminate between nestmates and non-nestmates. To test this we altered colony o...

Social insects exhibit remarkable variation in their colony breeding structures, both within and among species. Ecological factors are believed to be important in shaping reproductive traits of social insect colonies, yet there is little information linking specific environmental variables with differences in breeding structure. Subterranean termit...

Biological invasions are recognized as a major threat to both natural and managed ecosystems. Phylogeographic and population genetic analyses can provide information about the geographical origins and patterns of introduction and explain the causes and mechanisms by which introduced species have become successful invaders. Reticulitermes flavipes i...

SOMMAIRE AVANT-PROPOS 3 I. INTRODUCTION 5 II. LES COMMUNAUTÉS CONCERNÉES 6 III. CHIMIE DU VIVANT ÉCO-INSPIRÉE 7 IV. ÉCOLOGIE CHIMIQUE, UNE SCIENCE EXPÉRIMENTALE ET INTÉGRATIVE 12 V. L’ÉCOLOGIE CHIMIQUE ET LES OMIQUES 16 VI. APPROCHES MÉTABOLOMIQUES EN ÉCOLOGIE CHIMIQUE 24 VII. ÉCOGÉOCHIMIE 31 VIII. BASES DE DONNÉES 36 IX. PARTENARIATS AVEC LES AUTR...

Social insect colonies contain attractive resources for many organisms. Cleptoparasites sneak into their nests and steal food resources. Social parasites sneak into their social organisations and exploit them for reproduction. Both cleptoparasites and social parasites overcome the ability of social insects to detect intruders, which is mainly based...

Cooperative brood care is assumed to be the common driving factor leading to sociality. While this seems to be true for social Hymenoptera and many cooperatively breeding vertebrates, the importance of brood care for the evolution of eusociality in termites is unclear. A first step in elucidating this problem is an assessment of the ancestral condi...

L'ouvrage "Ecologie chimique : le langage de la nature" rédigé par des chercheurs issus de laboratoires CNRS ou associés, paraît le 25 octobre 2012 en librairie. Publié par le cherche midi, en partenariat avec le CNRS, ce livre grand public dévoile les secrets d'une science encore récente : l'écologie chimique ou l'art de décrypter le langage chimi...

The chemical integration strategies of facultative social parasites of social insects have not received the scientific attention they deserve, even though there is considerable research being done on the strategies of obligate social parasites. We simulated intraspecific nest usurpations in the social paper wasp, Polistes biglumis, by dividing each...

An important requirement for the management of invasive species is to identify the biological and ecological factors that influence the ability of such species to become established and spread within a new environment. Although competition is one of the key interactions determining the coexistence of species and exclusion, few studies directly exam...

In termites, the capacity of workers to differentiate into neotenic reproductives is an important characteristic that deserves particular attention. To gain insight into the differentiation pathway, the potentialities of workers and the endocrinal changes during the formation of neotenics were compared in two sympatric termites, Reticulitermes flav...

Termites of the genus Reticulitermes are characteristic of temperate regions. Their colonies comprise various castes, the most numerous being that of workers which can develop into soldiers or secondary reproductives (neotenics). Each caste has a mixture of hydrocarbons (HCs) on the cuticle forming a chemical signature. The primary aim of this stud...

The coexistence of multiple unrelated reproductives within social insect colonies decreases the relatedness among colony members and therefore challenges kin selection theory. This study investigated the colony genetic structure of a French introduced population of the American subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes by analyzing genotypes at...

In social insects, cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) play a central role in nestmate recognition. CHCs have proved to be useful for identifying species and differentiating populations. In combination with CHCs, isoprenoid soldier defensive secretions (SDSs) have been previously used in some termite species for chemotaxonomic analyses. This study compar...

Hydrocarbons play a crucial role in insect behavior in general and in sexual recognition in particular. Parasitoids often modify their oviposition behavior according to hydrocarbons left by conspecifics on the reproductive patch, such as oviposition markers left by females after oviposition, or cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) traces left by individuals...

A unique and critical analysis of the wealth of research conducted on the biology, biochemistry and chemical ecology of the rapidly growing field of insect cuticular hydrocarbons. Authored by leading experts in their respective fields, the twenty chapters show the complexity that has been discovered in the nature and role of hydrocarbons in entomol...

Reticulitermes urbis is a recently described termite species that has probably been introduced into Western Europe where it has been found exclusively in urban areas. However, little is known about the geographic distribution and origin of R. urbis. This study was undertaken to determine whether this species was introduced from the Balkans. A parsi...