Juvenile hormone titers, ovarian status and epicuticular hydrocarbons in gynes and workers of the paper wasp Belonogaster longitarsus

[Display omitted] •Pre-hibernating B. longitarsus gynes can form consistent dominance relationships.•Developed ovaries in gynes were associated with high positions of dominance.•Juvenile hormone titer showed positive correlation with gyne-specific traits.•Gynes and workers had distinct cuticular hydrocarbon profiles.•Longer-chain methyl-branched alkanes showed positive correlation with oocyte length. The prevailing paradigm for social wasp endocrinology is that of juvenile hormone (JH) functioning pleiotropically in potential and actual queens, where it fuels dominance behaviors, stimulates ovarian growth and/or affects the production of status-linked cuticular compounds. In colonies with annual cycles (e.g., temperate-zone species), female adults produced at the end of the summer (called gynes) are physiologically primed to hibernate. Despite the absence of egg-laying in the pre-overwintering phase, gynes engage in dominance interactions that may affect reproductive potential following hibernation. JH levels have long been inferred to be low in gynes but this has never been tested. In what is the first study to measure JH in gyne-containing colonies of a temperate paper wasp, and the first to incorporate hormone assays in Belonogaster, our results show that the JH titer positively correlates with gyne-specific traits (including oocyte length and a low frequency of foraging trips) in B. longitarsus, a South African paper wasp. Measures of dominance correlated with oocyte length, but not all dominant females possessed activated ovaries. The cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of gynes and workers were distinct, with oocyte length and JH titer showing a positive association with longer-chain methyl-branched alkanes. Nonetheless, evidence for a role of JH in dominance was inconclusive. Finally, the range of JH titers among gynes, and the positive association of JH titers with ovarian status and prospective fertility signals, makes it unlikely that the gyne phenotype is maintained by low JH levels.