The dominance hierarchy in primitively eusocial insect societies has been shown to be mainly regulated through aggressive interactions. Females that are generally more dominant stand out and occupy the queen position, meaning that they monopolize reproduction while others perform other tasks. Chemical communication is important for maintaining social cohesion. Cuticular hydrocarbons are recognized as the main molecules responsible for mediating social interactions, especially nestmate recognition and queen signalling. Many highly eusocial groups have been studied in recent years, but primitively eusocial groups, which are key to understanding the evolution of social behavior, remain unexplored. In this study, we investigated the connection between cuticular hydrocarbons in females expressed in different social contexts in the primitively eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus. Colonies in two different ontogenetic phases, pre- and post-worker emergence, were used. We observed and categorized behavioral interactions between individual females and collected all individuals in a nest to obtain information on size, ovary activation and chemical composition. Furthermore, we conducted experiments in which the alpha (dominant) females were removed from nests to produce a new dominance hierarchy. We found that females in different hierarchical positions had small chemical difference corresponding with ovary activity. Our results support the hypothesis that cuticular hydrocarbons are associated with social context in this primitively eusocial species, with some compounds being associated with hierarchical position and ovarian activity.

中文翻译：

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原始平庸黄蜂（Mischocyttarus cerberus）的优势等级，卵巢活动和表皮碳氢化合物（Vespidae，Polistinae，Mischocyttarini）。

原始的共社会昆虫社会的统治等级已显示出主要通过积极的互动来调节。通常，更具统治力的女性会脱颖而出并占据女王的位置，这意味着她们垄断生殖，而其他人则承担其他任务。化学交流对于保持社会凝聚力很重要。表皮碳氢化合物被认为是负责介导社交互动的主要分子，尤其是巢穴识别和女王信号传导。近年来，已经研究了许多高度平等的社会团体，但是对于理解社会行为的演变至关重要的原始的平等社会团体仍未得到探索。在这个研究中，短尾s。使用了两个不同的个体发育阶段的菌落，即上班族和下班族。我们观察并分类了雌性个体之间的行为相互作用，并将所有个体收集在巢中以获得有关大小，卵巢激活和化学成分的信息。此外，我们进行了实验，其中从巢中移走了雌性（优势）雌性，以产生新的优势等级。我们发现，处于不同等级位置的雌性具有与卵巢活动相对应的小的化学差异。我们的结果支持以下假设：表皮碳氢化合物与这个原始的共社会物种的社会环境有关，某些化合物与阶层位置和卵巢活动有关。