da Silva Rafael Carvalho, do Nascimento Fabio Santos, Oi Cintia Akemi
Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de São Paulo - USP, Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900 - Vila Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14040-900, Brazil.
Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Curr Res Insect Sci. 2025 Jan 25;7:100107. doi: 10.1016/j.cris.2025.100107. eCollection 2025.
The family Vespidae represents a key group to understand the evolutionary trajectory of social behavior in insects, as these wasps display the entire spectrum of social behaviors, from solitary to highly eusocial. The evolution of eusociality likely depended on a coordinated communication system, with chemical communication being suggested as the most commonly used among social insects. Chemical communication provides information about colony identity and an individual's identity, sex and caste, and can help resolve intracolonial conflicts. Parallel to the communication observed in adult-to-adult interactions, several reports have highlighted that the brood (eggs, larvae or pupae) can also act as direct or indirect sources of chemical compounds that can convey information. For example, eggs are covered with chemical substances that provide information about egg maternity and the queen's fertility. Given the increase in the past years of studies aiming to understand how brood can contribute to social dynamics, we reviewed the literature about the information conveyed by brood in wasp's nests across different levels of sociality. The main goal of this review was to synthesize the current knowledge and provide new venues of research. We addressed five main subjects (1) brood mediated conflicts and underlying mechanisms, (2) brood parasitism, (3) hydrocarbon cues covering brood, (4) juvenile hormone influencing brood scent and (5) other modes of communication used by brood.
胡蜂科是理解昆虫社会行为进化轨迹的关键类群，因为这些黄蜂展现出了从独居到高度群居的全谱系社会行为。群居性的进化可能依赖于一个协调的通讯系统，化学通讯被认为是群居昆虫中最常用的通讯方式。化学通讯提供有关群体身份以及个体身份、性别和等级的信息，并且有助于解决群体内冲突。与在成虫间互动中观察到的通讯情况类似，一些报告强调，蜂群（卵、幼虫或蛹）也可以作为能够传递信息的化合物的直接或间接来源。例如，卵被化学物质覆盖，这些物质提供有关卵的母体和蜂王繁殖力的信息。鉴于过去几年旨在了解蜂群如何影响社会动态的研究有所增加，我们回顾了关于不同社会程度黄蜂巢穴中蜂群所传达信息的文献。这篇综述的主要目的是综合当前的知识并提供新的研究方向。我们探讨了五个主要主题：（1）蜂群介导的冲突及潜在机制，（2）蜂群寄生，（3）覆盖蜂群的碳氢化合物线索，（4）影响蜂群气味的保幼激素，以及（5）蜂群使用的其他通讯方式。
