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Chemical Usurpation of a Nest by Paper Wasp Parasites
1A.-G. Bagneres, G. Dusticier, J.-L. Clement, CNRS UPR 9024, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie-Communication Chimique, 31, Chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 09, France. M.-C. Lorenzi, Dipartmento di Morfofisiol Veterinaria, Universita di Torino, Viale Mattioli 25, 10125 Turin, Italy. S. Turillazzi, Dipartmento di Biologia Animale e Genetica, Universita di Firenze, Via Romana 17, 50125 Florence, Italy.
Abstract:
The paper wasp Polistes atrimandibularis is an obligatory social parasite of another Polistes species, P. biglumis bimaculatus. To control the host nest, the parasite sequentially changes the composition of its chemical signature, the cuticular hydrocarbons, during the colonial cycle. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the cuticular hydrocarbons at every stage of the cycle showed that the parasite can switch on and off an entire chemical family, namely, the unsaturated hydrocarbons. In this way the parasite can match the host signature at a critical moment of the colonial cycle.