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Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on January 15, 2009
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjn079
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) Larvae Show Different Cuticular Patterns According to their Sex: Workers Seem Not Use This Chemical Information

Chiara Cotoneschi1, Francesca Romana Dani2, Rita Cervo1, Clea Scala3, Joan E. Strassmann3, David C. Queller3 and Stefano Turillazzi1,2

1 Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, University of Florence, 50125 Florence, Italy 2 Centro Interdipartimentale di Spettrometria di Massa, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy 3 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Chiara Cotoneschi, Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, University of Florence, via Romana 17, 50127 Florence, Italy. e-mail: chiara.cotoneschi{at}yahoo.it


  Abstract

During reproductive phase, larvae of male and female are intermingled in nest of social wasps. Workers care for and feed larvae that gives them an opportunity to bias investment with respect to sex, or even to kill some larvae, if they can distinguish between immature males and females. Cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) mixtures are the most studied cues for species, nestmate, and caste recognition in social Hymenoptera. In this study, we investigate the paper wasp Polistes dominulus to see if male and female larvae show different patterns of CHCs and if workers are able to discriminate between male and female larvae on this basis. We performed gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis on cuticular extracts of larvae, and then we genotyped them to assign sex. We found sex-based variation in CHC-profiles sufficient for discrimination. However, our behavioral assays do not support the view that adults discriminate between male and female larvae within nests.

Key words: cuticular hydrocarbons, haplodiploid system, larvae, Polistes dominulus, sex ratio, wasps

Accepted 24 November 2008


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