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The accumulation of a chemical cue: nest-entrance trail in the German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica

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Abstract

Vespine wasps have been shown to deposit an attractive chemical in the nest entrance. Foragers use this to help locate the nest when returning to it. We determined how many individuals need to track (pass through) the entrance before the chemical is recognized. We found a logistic response as the number of tracks increased. At 200 tracks and above there was a 75–90% positive response rate to the chemical. We found no evidence of trail-marking behavior performed by foragers inside the nest entrance. We conclude that the trail is not an evolved signal, but is a cue composed of an accumulation of hydrocarbons deposited from the legs or feet of workers as they walk on a substrate. This is the first quantitative measurement of the attractiveness of the nest-entrance chemical in a social wasp.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Peter and Jennifer Zeimet and Melissa Dalton for allowing us to excavate yellowjacket nests from their lawns. We are grateful to Mark Allington for constructing nest boxes and testing apparatus. We appreciate Reid Maier, Lucas Rifkin, and Ken Howard for their help in collecting and setting up nests. We thank Andy Bersch and Erik Iverson for help with statistical analyses. Research supported by Hatch grant no. 4433 to R. L. J. and by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Experiments in this study comply with the current laws of the United States of America.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Jennifer M. Jandt, Sarah Hemauer & Robert L. Jeanne

  2. Department of Hematology, University of Wisconsin, 600 Highland Ave., Madison, WI, 53792, USA

    Christine Curry

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  1. Jennifer M. Jandt
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  2. Christine Curry
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  3. Sarah Hemauer
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  4. Robert L. Jeanne
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Correspondence to Robert L. Jeanne.

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Jandt, J.M., Curry, C., Hemauer, S. et al. The accumulation of a chemical cue: nest-entrance trail in the German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica. Naturwissenschaften 92, 242–245 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0613-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0613-5

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