Research
Current Projects
Dynamics of the organization of insect societies
The key to the success of insect societies is their organization. The defining feature of these societies is the reproductive division of labor, i.e. some individuals focus on reproduction while other colony members raise the brood and maintain the nest. Usually the reproductive individuals are queens that differ in morphology from their helper workers. However, some species have monomorphic colony members or workers have the ability to replace the queen in their function as primary egg-layer. We study the factors that govern the formation of hierarchies and lead to the social stability of a colony with one or several established reproductive. We use these studies to find rules that generally apply to the organization of societies.
Signal evolution and cuticular hydrocarbon communication
Insect societies provide an excellent opportunity to study the evolution of olfactory signals. Especially the use of cuticular hydrocarbons as queen pheromones in ants and other eusocial insects matches the sender-precursor model of signal evolution. We study the function of cuticular hydrocarbon profiles in reproductive regulation and individual recognition to derive general rules of olfactory signal evolution.
Sensory basis of olfactory discrimination
Compared to vision and audition, olfaction is much less understood. Especially, the specifics of odor discrimination at the receptor level has major gaps compared to the other two signaling modalities. We study odor discrimination at the level of the individuals and the olfactory receptors using discrimination tests, single sensillum recording and the Drosophila empty neuron system. For that purpose, we exploit the use of cuticular hydrocarbons by insect societies for many natural discrimination tasks.
Collaborative projects
The lab collaborates regularly with other groups. A past focus was genomics and epigenetics of ant and termite societies. Current projects target the deciphering of the olfactory code and the mechanisms of developmental plasticity of ants.
Phone: +1 (480) 727-8508
Email: Juergen.Liebig-at-asu.edu
Arizona State University
School of Life Sciences