Bald-faced hornet viable brood in the comb fragment. The physical nature of cues mediating natal comb recognition is unknown, though some researchers propose distinct cuticular hydrocarbon profiles allow wasps to recognize nest mates. "D. maculata" is characterized by low paternity, worker reproduction and queen-worker conflict. Divergent genetic interests between workers and their queen cause intra-nest struggle for control, which disrupts social organization. Because of haplodiploidy, workers are unable to mate. However, their unfertilized eggs become males. Workers and their queens are most related to their own sons. Natural selection will therefore favor those workers who produce their own sons rather than rearing
Bald-faced hornet C29 backbone. The major lipids and their distributions in workers were as follows: n-heptacosane(28%), 11-13-methylheptacosane (15%) 3,13-dimethylheptacosane (11%) and 13 and 15-methylnonacosane (10%). Nonacosene comprised 34% of cuticular lipids in the queen. The average chain length of identified cuticular lipids is 28.0 in queens and 27.5 in workers. In "D. maculata", queens mate with only one male which results in a worker relatedness of 0.75, whereas the relatedness between the queen and worker is only 0.5. Gynes in "D. maculata" have the ability to discriminate between fragments of natal comb and foreign comb. Recognition does not depend upon presence of