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Conservation of Queen Pheromones Across Two Species of Vespine Wasps

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Abstract

Social insects are known for their reproductive division of labor between queens and workers, whereby queens lay the majority of the colony’s eggs, and workers engage mostly in non-reproductive tasks. Queens produce pheromones that signal their presence and fertility to workers, which in turn generally remain sterile. Recently, it has been discovered that specific queen-characteristic cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) function as queen pheromones across multiple lineages of social insects. In the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, several long-chain linear alkanes and 3-methylalkanes were shown to act as queen signals. Here, we describe similar bioassays with a related species of highly eusocial vespine wasp, the Saxon wasp, Dolichovespula saxonica. We show that a blend of queen-characteristic hydrocarbons that are structurally related to those of the common wasp inhibit worker reproduction, suggesting conservation of queen pheromones across social wasps. Overall, our results highlight the central importance of CHCs in chemical communication among social insects in general, and as conserved queen pheromones in these social wasps in particular.

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Acknowledgments

We thank H. Munks and A. Vandoren for help with field work. This study was supported by FWO (Research Fund – Flanders) grant G.0 A51.15 and KU Leuven Centre of Excellence grant PF/2010/007 (to T.W.), postdoctoral fellowship FWO 12Q7615N (to J.S.v.Z.), CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) Brazil scholarship 201959/2012-7 (to C.A.O.) and Hatch project CA-R*ENT-5181-H (to J.G.M.). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Cintia A. Oi, Jelle S. van Zweden & Tom Wenseleers

  2. Departments of Entomology and Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Jocelyn G. Millar

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  1. Cintia A. Oi
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  2. Jocelyn G. Millar
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  3. Jelle S. van Zweden
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  4. Tom Wenseleers
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Correspondence to Cintia A. Oi.

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Oi, C.A., Millar, J.G., van Zweden, J.S. et al. Conservation of Queen Pheromones Across Two Species of Vespine Wasps. J Chem Ecol 42, 1175–1180 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-016-0777-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-016-0777-9

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