Species and colony components in the recognition odor of young social wasps: Their expression and learning (Polistes biglumis and P-atrimandibularis;Hymenoptera : Vespidae)

In Polistes, nestmate recognition relies on the learning of recognition cue s from the nest. When wasps recognize nestmates, they match the template le arned with the odor of the encountered wasp. The social wasp Polistes biglu mis use the homogeneous odor of their colony to recognize nestmates. When t hese colonies become host colonies of the social parasite P. atrimandibular is, colony odor is no longer homogeneous, as the parasite offspring have an odor that differs from that of their hosts. In trying to understand how th e mechanism of nestmate recognition works in parasitized colonies and why p arasite offspring are accepted by hosts, we tested the responses of residen t Polistes biglumis wasps from parasitized and unparasitized colonies to ne wly emerged parasites and to nestmate and non-nestmate conspecifics. The ex periments indicate that immediately upon eclosion both young parasites and young hosts lack a colony odor and that colony odor can be soon acquired fr om the accepting colony. In addition, while residents of nonparasitized col onies recognize only the odor of their species, resident hosts of parasitiz ed colonies have learned a template that fits the odors of two species.