9317897 Fitzgerald ABSTRACT In order to function as a unit, the members of a social system must communicate. For social insects, important aspects of communication are carried out through chemicals called pheromones. One of the ways insects use pheromones is through laying down trails of these chemicals, which provide information to other members of the colony or social unit. Fitzgerald and Webster will use molecular techniques to determine how tent caterpillars use trail pheromones to regulate the flow of colony mates to their food-finds and to their bivouacs (their "tents"). They will decode the precise chemical basis of these trails and determine the behavioral bases of the pheromone-based system of communication in tent caterpillars. The results of this research will further the understanding of the evolution of communication in insects and may provide information that would prove helpful in controlling the depredations of tent caterpillars.
