One wasp, she has discovered, can recognize another through facial and abdominal markings, all but displacing the scientific dogma that insects carry out identification and communication only by employing chemicals called pheromones. "Their faces are far more beautiful and different than you'd expect," says Elizabeth Tibbetts, a Cornell doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior.

Her study, "Visual signals of individual identity in wasp Polistes fuscatus ," appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B (Issue 269). This is believed to be the first study showing that wasps can visually recognize individual kith and kin through facial and abdominal markings and will visually reject unfamiliar wasps.

"They are more sophisticated than we thought," Tibbetts says.

To understand paper wasp behavior, the researcher examined life inside the hierarchical wasp society. Queens and workers form a power structure that determines how food is distributed, how work tasks are assigned and who will be allowed lay eggs within the colony. "Such a stable hierarchy would be simplified if individuals of different ranks had some degree of individual recognition," says Tibbetts.

She interrupted the societal rankings by painting wasps' faces and abdomens, altering their yellow markings. Back in the colony, these painted wasps were the victims of considerable aggression. "Wasps did not immediately recognize the alleged intruder, and fights among former friends broke out," Tibbetts says. Normally, real invaders are mauled and sent packing within minutes.

But in addition to visual cues, paper wasps use chemical cues -- or scent -- on their exoskeletons as identification. Because of the chemical cues, nest mates were able to distinguish between friends and intruders a
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Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-255-3290
Cornell University News Service
31-Oct-2002