ABSTRACT
Social wasps have served as model systems for investigating numerous sociobiological questions, including those associated with kin-selection theory. Many social wasps have independently-founded colonies that undergo four colony phases. Most of the published research on kin and nestmate recognition in wasps has been on species from temperate zones. The ability of nestmates of the opposite sex to recognize each other may be important in the context of mating. The ability of wasps to recognize their nests via chemoreception may be an ancestral characteristic in solitary wasps that served as a preadaptation for the evolution of nestmate recognition in social wasps. The selection pressures affecting nest and nestmate recognition probably differ between temperate and tropical social wasps. Understanding the differences and similarities between the recognition systems of paper wasps and other social animals will provide insight into the selective pressures that have shaped the evolution of kin recognition.
