Figure legends

Figure 1 : Simplified overview of CHC biosynthesis. The biosynthesis pathway branches at different stages into different CHC compound classes. The main CHC compound classes are methyl-branched alkanes, straight-chain alkanes, alkenes and dienes. Enzyme abbreviations: ACC: Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, FAS: Fatty acid synthase (m: microsomal, c: cytosolic), LaAT: Lipoamide acyltransferase, ELO: Elongase, KAR: 3-keto acyl-CoA-reductase, HADC: 3-hydroxy-acyl-CoA-dehydratase, TER: Trans-enoyl-CoA-reductase, FAR: Fatty acyl-CoA reductase. CYP4G: Cytochrome P450 Decarbonylase. Numbers next to the enzymes correspond to the associated gene transcripts we detected in our tested Blattodea species (compare to Tab. 1). Adapted from Holze, Schrader, and Buellesbach (2020).
Figure 2 : Comparison of average CHC ratios (relative percentages) from the studied representative termite and cockroach species, categorized according to their levels of social complexity. The six major CHC compound classes detected in these species were n-alkanes, n-alkenes, as well as mono-, di-, tri and tetra-methyl branched alkanes and are indicated by different colors. Acronyms for the investigated species are used here and in all subsequent figures as follows: R. flavipes (Rf), C. formosanus (Cf), K.flavicollis (Kf), N. castaneus (Nc),M. darwiniensis (Md), B. germanica (Bg) andB. orientalis (Bo). Insect images have been obtained from the Darmstadt Insect Scanner DISC3D (Ströbel et al. 2018) and have been kindly provided by Sebastian Schmelzle.
Figure 3 : Comparison of molecular phylogeny (left) and a chemical dendrogram (right) of our Blattodea study species. The molecular phylogeny is adapted from He et al. (2021) and the chemical dendrogram is based on average chemical Manhattan distances reflecting the median CHC divergence separating the different cockroach and termite species.
Figure 4 : Comparison between counts of CHC biosynthesis gene transcripts (indicated in blue) and counts of total individual CHC compounds (indicated in orange) detected in our representative cockroach and termite species. Correlations between these two metrics were assessed with a 2 (chisquare) test (r=0.12, p=0.79). Their respective levels of social complexity are indicated in both cases. Insect images have been obtained from the Darmstadt Insect Scanner DISC3D (Ströbel et al. 2018) and have been kindly provided by Sebastian Schmelzle.
Figure 5 : Heatmap normalized by average relative abundances of CHC biosynthesis gene transcript counts (columns) from high (darker colors) to low (lighter colors) grouped by species and their respective level of social complexity. The numbers indicated at the gene transcripts correspond to their respective position in the CHC biosynthesis pathway (see Fig. 1 and Tab. 1).