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
Bare-faced bulbul Bare-faced bulbul The bare-faced bulbul ("Nok hualon") is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It was newly described from central Laos in 2009. It is one of the very few Asian songbirds with a bald (featherless) face and is the first new species of bulbul to be described from Asia in almost a century. The species epithet "hualon" is from the Lao word for "bald-headed". A 2018 molecular phylogenetic study of the bulbuls suggested that the species does not fit in the clade containing the core "Pycnonotus" and stood apart suggesting its placement in a new genus