Hornets Have It: A Conserved Olfactory Subsystem for Social Recognition in Hymenoptera?

ABSTRACT: Eusocial Hymenoptera colonies are characterized by the presence of altruistic individuals, which rear their siblings instead of their own offspring. In the course of evolution, such sterile castes are thought to have emerged through the process of kin selection, altruistic traits being transmitted to following generation if they benefit relatives. By allowing kinship recognition, the detection of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) might be instrumental for kin selection. In carpenter ants, a female-specific olfactory subsystem processes CHC information through antennal detection by basiconic sensilla. It is still unclear if other families of eusocial Hymenoptera use the same subsystem for sensing CHCs. Here, we examined the existence of such a subsystem in Vespidae (using the hornet Vespa ve

SUBMITTER: Couto A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5469875 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature