CHEMICAL USURPATION OF A NEST BY PAPER WASP PARASITES

The paper wasp Polistes atrimandibularis is an obligatory social paras ite of another Polistes species, P. biglumis bimaculatus. To control t he host nest, the parasite sequentially changes the composition of its chemical signature, the cuticular hydrocarbons, during the colonial c ycle. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the cuticular hydrocarbo ns at every stage of the cycle showed that the parasite can switch on and off an entire chemical family, namely, the unsaturated hydrocarbon s. In this way the parasite can match the host signature at a critical moment of the colonial cycle.