Pupal experience and nestmate recognition in Polistes dominula wasps.

Pre-natal learning is a widespread phenomenon in animals and it can shape various behaviors in adults. Here, we investigated whether pre-imaginal learning affects later nestmate recognition in P. dominula wasps. We reared worker pupae in artificial conditions to test whether the absence of nest material, or the exposure to nest material taken from a foreign conspecific colony, during pupal development would alter the nestmate recognition ability in adult life. Our results show that wasps maintain their correct recognition ability regardless of the treatment, suggesting that wasps do not form their referent template during the pupal stage from the nest paper. Alternative hypotheses for template formation timing and source of recognition cues are discussed. Moreover, we investigated whether young wasps already possess, on their own body, reliable chemical cues to form a recognition template by self-referent phenotype matching.