Long-term stability of hornet cuticular hydrocarbons facilitates chemotaxonomy using museum specimens

Abstract

Cuticular hydrocarbons are key compounds used for insect chemical communication and their species-specificity makes them of great utility to chemotaxonomists. However, very little is known about their long-term stability in relation to their use as reliable taxonomic tools. We compared the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of fresh extracts from four hornet (Vespa) species with extracts from specimens that were frozen for 1 year and of those stored in insect display boxes for 20 years. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles were qualitatively very stable, maintaining their species-specific profiles even after 20 years. The long-term stability of cuticular hydrocarbons in hymenopterans opens up the possibility of using museum collections for chemotaxonomy studies and helping with the delineation of species in difficult groups.