Cuticular hydrocarbons as caste-linked cues in Neotropical swarm-founding wasps

Rafael Carvalho da Silva; Amanda Prato; Ivelize Tannure-Nascimento; Cintia Akemi Oi; Tom Wenseleers; Fabio Nascimento

doi:10.7717/peerj.13571

Cuticular hydrocarbons as caste-linked cues in Neotropical swarm-founding wasps

PeerJ. 2022 Jun 7:10:e13571. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13571. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rafael Carvalho da Silva¹, Amanda Prato¹, Ivelize Tannure-Nascimento^{1

2}, Cintia Akemi Oi^{3

4}, Tom Wenseleers³, Fabio Nascimento¹

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Biologia/Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
² Departamento de Morfologia e Fisiologia Animal, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil.
³ Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
⁴ Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, University of London, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Wasps (Vespidae) are important organisms to understand the evolution of social behaviour. Wasps show different levels of sociality, which includes solitary to highly eusocial organisms. In social insect species, queens and workers differ in physiology and morphology. The Neotropical swarm-founding wasps (Epiponini) show a variety of caste syndromes. In this clade, the caste-flexibility is a unique characteristic, in which workers can become queens and swarm to start a new nest. The investigation of the caste system comparing several Epiponini species show a clear-cut morphological distinction between queens and workers, with a morphological continuum between queens and workers. However, whether cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are used as cues for caste recognition in swarm-founding wasps is still unknown. We studied whether CHCs may display caste-linked differences in eleven species of Epiponini wasps and if CHCs differences would follow morphological patterns. Our results suggest that queens and workers of Epiponini wasps are chemically different from each other at two levels, qualitatively and quantitatively, or merely quantitatively. This variation seems to exist regardless of their morphological traits and may be useful to help us understanding how chemical communication evolved differently in these species.

Keywords: Castes; Chemical signaling; Queen pheromones; Reproduction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Cues
Hydrocarbons
Phenotype
Social Behavior
Wasps* / anatomy & histology

Substances

Hydrocarbons

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 and grant 2018/22461–3 São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) to Rafael Carvalho da Silva. Funding was provided from Bilateral grant FWO-FAPESP to Cintia Oi, Fabio Nascimento, and Tom Wenseleers (processes: 2018/10996–0 and 2021/05598-8 FAPESP and FWO: GOF8319N), Research Foundation Flanders to Cintia Oi (postdoctoral fellowship FWO-12V6318N and research grant FWO-1513219 N), and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico to Fabio Nascimento (307702/2018–9) and to Amanda Prato (142285/2018-8.) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.