<p>Cuticular chemistry variation communicates several types of information about individuals in insect colonies, including caste membership. Independent-founding eusocial paper wasps are useful models for testing hypotheses about the associations of cuticular chemical variation with social roles because caste status can be partly decoupled from reproductive physiology: there is typically a single egg-laying female (queen) in each colony, but several females with ovary development can co-occur with the queen in mature worker-producing colonies. We asked whether the relative concentrations of non-polar cuticular compounds were most reliably associated with individuals’ ovary development (representing putative fertility cues) or with queen status (representing putative caste cues) in the paper wasp <i>Mischocyttarus pallidipectus</i>. In this Neotropical species several females with ovary development can occupy nests with a single laying queen, along with additional females with undeveloped (filamentous) ovaries. Discriminant function analyses of individuals differences in cuticular chemistry suggested a set of seven variable compounds predicted female caste membership (queen versus non-queen); cuticular chemistry variation was more strongly associated with the queen/non-queen distinction than with ovary status (females with developed versus filamentous ovaries). Colony identity was partly predicted by cuticular chemistry, and most of the significant colony-discriminating cuticular compounds were distinct from the significant caste-discriminating compounds. We discuss the implications of these findings for possible mechanisms of queen/non-queen differences in cuticular chemistry.</p>