GENETIC-STRUCTURE OF THE FIRST BROOD OF WORKERS AND MATING FREQUENCY OF QUEENS IN A JAPANESE PAPER WASP, POLISTES-CHINENSIS-ANTENNALIS

Genotypes of a queen and the first brood of workers of 20 colonies of Polistes chinensls antennalis were electrophoretically analyzed. We fo und allelic polymorphisms in two loci which encodes two enzyme, i.e., creatine kinase (CK) and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH). The genotype array of the first brood of workers in five colonies could not be expl ained by monoandry of the queen. Two to four suggested multiple mating of the queen, and one to three suggested replacement of the queen. Al though multiple matings of some queens is apparent, the mean estimate of relatedness of the first brood of workers from the genotype frequen cy data, 0.648, is ambiguous, because it is not significantly differen t from 0.75 (one singly-mated queen) nor 0.545 (one doubly-mated queen ).