Chemical trails used for orientation in nest cavities by two vespine wasps, Vespa crabro and Vespula vulgaris

Abstract

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.

Use of terrestrial chemical trails for nest orientation in an open nesting wasp, Dolichovespula saxonica F.

“…Since presence and direction of the trail were the only parameters changed experimentally it was very likely that the trail direction was the responsible cue for the oriented behaviour of the foragers. We conclude that the trail was biologically active, and served to orient foragers at the nest site as it is already known for V. crabro and V. vulgaris (Steinmetz et al, 2002).…”

“…Trail production in Dolichovespula saxonica was unexpected, because up to now, continuous chemical terrestrial trails in wasps were known only from obligate cavity breeding species which walk longer distances in the vicinity of the nest, as for example Vespula vulgaris and Vespa crabro (Steinmetz et al, 2002). D. saxonica typically nests at open sites, and nests in cavities can only exceptionally be found in urban areas (pers.…”

“…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.…”

“…Chemical trail production and trail following among social wasps (Vespinae) are known from Vespa crabro and Vespula vulgaris (Steinmetz et al, 2002). These species are cavity nesting with the nest entrance and cavity entrance spatially separated (Matsuura, 1991;Greene, 1991).…”

“…To gain more information about the phylogenetic distribution and evolution of trail pheromones within the Vespinae, it was of particular interest to investigate the potential application of trail pheromones in Dolichovespula, which do not regularly walk in the vicinity of the nest. Additionally, we examined the possibility that a putative trail is colony specific as is known for terrestrial trails in some ant species (Traniello, 1980;Hölldobler and Wilson, 1990) and among the Vespinae for Vespa crabro (Steinmetz et al, 2002).…”