Recognition of social parasites as nest-mates:: adoption of colony-specific host cuticular odours by the paper wasp parasite Polistes sulcifer

Colonies of the polistine wasp Polistes dominulus are parasitized by the permanent worker-less social parasite Polistes sulcifer. After usurpation of the host colony, parasite females are characterized by a change in the relative proportions of their cuticular hydrocarbons to match those of the host species. In this paper we present evidence from field data and laboratory experiments that P. sulcifer females adopt a colony-specific host odour that facilitates their acceptance by host females of the usurped colony. Presentation experiments demonstrate that parasite females are recognized as foreign individuals by workers of other parasitized nests. We show that the modification of parasite cuticular compounds is sufficient for this recognition. This provides evidence that, after invasion, P. sulcifer queens do not require appeasement or propaganda substances for their acceptance by host colonies. Furthermore, multivariate discriminant analysis of the Cuticular hydrocarbon proportions of the parasites after usurpation assigns the parasites together with P dominulus females of their own host colony. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first confirmation that social parasites adopt colony-specific host odours.