CUTICULAR LIPID PROFILES OF QUEENS, WORKERS, AND MALES OF SOCIAL WASPPOLISTES METRICUS SAY ARE COLONY-SPECIFIC

The cuticular lipids of Polistes metricus queens, workers and males fr om seven laboratory-maintained colonies were extracted and analyzed by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Males had higher propo rtions of alkenes (20.5%) in their cuticular lipids than did queens (2 .3%) or workers (7.7%). Discriminant analyses of the cuticular lipid p rofiles of the adult wasps showed that males group separately from fem ales. Additional analyses showed that queens group with their respecti ve workers by colony and that queens group even more closely with male s by colony. The most distinct groupings occurred with workers only by colony and with males only by colony. Stepwise discriminant analyses showed that each type of grouping was dependent upon a different combi nation of cuticular lipids.