Self-sacrifice in 'desperado' contests between relatives

Onset of fights and mutual assessment in ant founding queens

In animals, the progress and outcome of contests can be influenced by an individual's own condition, their opponent's condition or a combination of the two. The use of chemical information to assess the quality of rivals has been underestimated despite its central role in the regulation of social interactions in many taxa. Here, we studied pairwise contests between founding queens of the ant Lasius niger to investigate whether the decision to engage in agonistic interactions relies on self-assessment or mutual assessment. Queens modulated their aggressive behaviours depending on both their own status and their opponent's status. We found no influence of lipid stores or size on the onset of fights. However, differences in cuticular chemical signatures linked to fertility status accurately predicted the probability of behaving aggressively in pairs. Our study thus suggests that ant queens could rely on mutual assessment via chemical cues to make informed decisions about fight initiation.