Van der Vecht's gland or Van der Vecht's organ is a

gland In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

which is located in an area of modified

cuticle A cuticle (), or cuticula, is any of a variety of tough but flexible, non-mineral outer coverings of an organism, or parts of an organism, that provide protection. Various types of "cuticle" are non- homologous, differing in their origin, structu ...

on the rearmost gastral

sternite The sternum (pl. "sterna") is the ventral portion of a segment of an arthropod thorax or abdomen. In insects, the sterna are usually single, large sclerites, and external. However, they can sometimes be divided in two or more, in which case the ...

of female wasps. This gland secretes chemicals which are important in the determination and maintenance of the hierarchy of groups of eusocial wasps and are used in the defence of the nests in others. In the Asian giant hornet (''Vespa mandarinia'') the van der Vecht's gland is used to

scent mark In ethology, territory is the sociographical area that an animal consistently defends against conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against animals of other species) using agonistic behaviors or (less commonly) real physical aggression. A ...

hives of honey bees to attract other members of their colony to cooperatively attack the hive; the only known case of the gland's use to scent mark a food source. In the

cleptoparasitic Kleptoparasitism (etymologically, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, which can mean when fo ...

paper wasp '' Polistes semenowi'' the female usurps the host foundress, usually '' Polistes dominula'' and uses an enlarged Van der Vecht's gland to produce large quantities of hydrocarbons and to control the host workers, and even sometimes the host foundress. The gland was discovered by, and named in honour of, the Dutch

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Jacobus van der Vecht. At least in the wasps of the genus '' Polistes'' the dominant females, or queens, have relatively larger van der Vecht's organs compared to the workers although the brush like structure, the sternal brush,, the wasps used to brush the chemicals produced by the gland was not larger relative to the size of the wasp. It is thought that Van der Vecht's gland was to provide a chemical defence against ant predators in the species which have independent foundresses and nests without any form of protective envelope, the gland producing chemicals which repel ants and which are placed on the petiole connecting the nest to the surface it is suspended from. In swarming species the nest is always attended and scouting ants are dealt with by the attendant workers while protective envelopes may also protect against insect predator. The gland is not present in wasps belonging to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Stenogastrinae The Stenogastrinae are a subfamily of social wasps included in the family Vespidae. They are sometimes called hover wasps owing to the particular hovering flight of some species. Their morphology and biology present interesting peculiarities. S ...

but is present in the subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae. It has, however, been lost in some lineages within these subfamilies where they have nests founded by swarms and/or protected by an envelope. It has also been retained in lineages which have swarm foundresses and nests protected by an envelope such as the eusocial Vespinae. It is not known if the secretions of the gland in these wasps still has a defensive function, but at least in the Asian giant hornet the secretions have been repurposed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van der Vecht's gland Insect anatomy Arthropod glands Apocrita