We investigated the origin and composition of the chemical trail of the common yellow jacket Vespula vulgaris L. (Vespidae) and found that an artificial trail made from an extract of cuticular lipids from V. vulgaris foragers was biologically as active as a trail laid naturally by the foragers. Chemical analysis of natural trail extracts and the behaviourally active cuticular extracts by coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed that the majority of cuticular hydrocarbons were also present in the trail extract at similar ratios. Thus, bioassay data and chemical analysis provide strong evidence that these cuticular hydrocarbons act as a trail pheromone in V. vulgaris.
Foragers of the two cavity-nesting vespines, Vespa crabro and Vespula vulgaris, lay and follow chemical trails in their nest cavities. In our experiments 75 % of V. crabro and 72% of V. vulgaris foraging workers followed a trail arranged in a direction to which they were not accustomed. In experiments with trails taken in from conspecific alien colonies, 21 % of V. crabro foragers and 65 % of V. vulgaris foragers followed the trails. These behavioural responses indicate that the trail of V. crabro is colony-specific whereas that of V. vulgaris is not.
The long-cheeked wasp Dolichovespula saxonica typically constructs exposed nests which can be reached by flying. Usually foragers do not walk on substrates in the close vicinity of the nests as cavity breeding wasps do (Steinmetz et al., 2002). Unexpectedly, when forced to walk outside the nest instead of flying in an artificial tunnel system, D. saxonica foragers lay a terrestrial trail and use it for orientation in the nest area in our experiments. 41 % of the foragers followed the trail in a direction they were not accustomed to. We suggest that the foragers have employed the same orientation cues normally used for orientation in the close vicinity of the nest when approaching a free-hanging nest by flying, for example nest odour. Nest odour substances may have been transferred to the substrate as a trail as a consequence of foragers walking through the tunnels.
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