Polistes metricus

Espelie, K.E., Wenzel, J. W. and Chang, G. (1990). Surface lipids of social wasp Polistes metricus Say and its nest and nest pedicel and their relation to nestmate recognition. J. Chem. Ecol., 16, 2229-2241. 

Layton, J.M., Camann, M.A. and Espelie, K.E. (1994). Cuticular lipid profiles of queens, workers, and males of social wasp Polistes metricus Say are colony-specific. 

Alkanes also play an important role in nest mate recognition of wasps (Polistes metricus). However, these same signals may announce the wasp s presence to possible predators (Espelie and Hermann, 1990 Espelie et al., 1990). 

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