Life Sciences Commons^™

The Relationships Between Cuticular Hydrocarbon Composition, Faunal Assemblages, Inter-Island Distance, And Population Genetic Variation In Tuscan Archipelago Wasps, Leonardo Dapporto, Aviva Liebert, Philip Starks, Stefano Turillazzi

Aviva E Liebert

Until recently, studies examining the geographical distribution of insects in the Tuscan Archipelago have focused on paleogeography as the primary influence on species distributions. However, for flying insects such as Hymenoptera that may be able to disperse over water, current geographical location is likely to be more important in determining present distributions within the Archipelago. Here we compare mainland and island wasp populations using genetic variation and cuticular hydrocarbon composition of the vespid wasp Polistes dominulus, and species composition of wasps in the family Pompilidae. Both chemical and genetic data result in similar clustering of P. dominulus populations that reflect …