Abstract
Predation by ants on wasp brood is responsible for the evolution of an ant repellent produced by social wasps in the genus Polistes . The active component of the repellent, methyl palmitate, and its methyl ester homolog, methyl myristate, were tested against four ant species tending aphids. All four ant species were repelled, but the degree of repellency varied. Two hypotheses were tested to account for the differential repellency among ant species: repellency is a negative function of body size, and differences in social modes of foraging correlate with differences in repellency. The latter hypothesis was supported, in that ant species lacking plasticity in their foraging strategy and relying on trail odors are repelled much more extensively than ants using a variety of cues for locating food. It is hypothesized that wasps evolved their chemical defense in response to selection pressure from trail-following ants.
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