Polymorphic Microsatellite Loci in the Independent-founding Wasp Polists versicolor (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Microsatellite primers developed for a given species are sometimes useful for another in the same genus, making possible to search for pre-existing suitable primers in the data banks such as GenBank. We examined whether existing primers developed for Polistes wasps could be used for the independent-founding wasp Polistes versicolor. We tested 50 microsatellite primers from three Polistes species and found that five microsatellite loci show polymorphism in size in P. versicolor. These five loci were highly polymorphic, having four to 10 alleles in P. versicolor with an expected heterozygosity of 0.530–0.836. These loci can be used to study parameters concerning genetic relatedness such as social interactions in colonies and genetic conflicts of interest among nestmate individuals.