Affiliation: | (1) Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e Genetica Leo Pardi , Università di Firenze, via Romana 17, 50125 Florence, Italy;(2) Centro Interdipartimentale Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio dell Università di Pisa, Via Roma 79, 56011 Calci (PI), Italy;(3) Centro Interdipartimentale di servizi di Spettrometria di Massa (CISM), University of Florence, Viale G. Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy |
Abstract: | Various studies indicate that cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) act as cues for nestmate recognition in paper wasps and other social insects. A recent study showed that associative nest foundation in Polistes dominulus is mainly performed by foundresses coming from the same locality. In the present study, we induced future foundresses of P. dominulus collected in two different localities to hibernate in the laboratory in aggregates of individuals from the same or different localities. After 2 months of hibernation, foundresses from different localities but from the same experimental cluster did not show any preference to associate, at the time of nest foundation, with individuals coming from the same original locality. The cuticular chemical profiles of individuals from the mixed hibernation clusters were quite similar and significantly different from those of individuals which hibernated with other foundresses from the same locality. These findings suggest that, in this species, mechanisms other than nestmate chemical recognition play a major role in the spring association of gynes during the foundation of a new nest.Communicated by R.F.A. Moritz |