Bald-faced hornet hydrocarbons serve as a barrier to moisture diffusion and thus prevent dehydration in wasps. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles vary over species and nests, and so cuticular hydrocarbons are a proposed mechanism for nest-mate recognition. Worker and queen cuticular lipids have similar components, but their distributions differ dramatically, implying that cuticular hydrocarbons also play a role in caste differentiation. The following lipid profiles were determined from specimens collected in the summer and early fall of northeastern Georgia in 1989. The dominant hydrocarbons recovered from the cuticles of workers were n-alkanes and methyl branched and dimethyl branched alkanes with a C27 or a
USS Hornet (CV-8) the hour after launching the B-25s, "Hornet" sailed into Pearl Harbor. That the Tokyo raid was the "Hornet"s mission was kept an official secret for a year; until then President Roosevelt referred to the ship from which the bombers were launched only as "Shangri-La". Two years later, the Navy would give this name to an aircraft carrier. "Hornet" steamed from Pearl Harbor on 30 April to aid and at the Battle of the Coral Sea, but the battle ended before she reached the scene. On 4 May Task Force 16 crossed the equator, the first time ever for "Hornet". After