Paper wasps divide the work of the colony between different castes: workers build and defend the nest, whereas individuals destined to become queens lay eggs. Wasps do not inherit these roles, but are instead set on a particular developmental path during the larval stage. Researchers have discovered how this occurs in the genus Polistes: queens use their antennae to drum near to or on nest cells containing larvae to turn them into workers.
Sainath Suryanarayanan at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his group used an electrical device to simulate this drumming on colonies that produce Polistes fuscatus wasps (pictured) destined to become queens. The wasps that emerged had the lean body type of workers. The link between the drumming — which for larger Polistes species is audible outside the nest — and gene-expression changes is not clear.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Drummed into submission. Nature 470, 9 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/470009d
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/470009d
