Dominance Behaviour in Wasps Flashcards
nests of solitary wasps - potter wasp, organ pipe nest
highly eusocial hornet nests
primitively eusocial paper wasp nests
POTTER WASP
- small individual nests where they lay eggs and provide food (like paralyzed prey) for larvae.
- looks like a small clay pot
PRIMITIVELY EUSOCIAL HORNET NESTS
- paper wasps have small, open nests made of chewed wood fibres
- reproductive division of labour not as strict - smaller nests but more open, communal structure to allow easy sharing/reassignment of roles
HIGHLY EUSOCIAL HORNET NESTS
- large, enclosed nests that often house thousands of individuals
- with elaborate multi-layered structures made of chewed wood fibers
- complex structure with sections reflects strict division of labour
describe wasps
Diverse, 100,000s of species known and can be:
- Solitary
- primitively eusocial
- highly eusocial
Multiple ecological roles:
- Predators and prey
- Parasitoids and parasites
- pests and pest control agents
- pollinators
- Models for mimics and to study sociobiology
- Human culture (Wasps in Marvel, wasps as sports mascots, WASP the band)
Parasites tend to live in or on their hosts without causing immediate death, while parasitoids rely on the eventual death of their host to complete their life cycle.
certain species of wasps serve as a basis for other organisms (often insects) that have evolved to resemble them
describe the composition and behaviour of social wasp groups
Have:
- Usually one or a few queens (reproducing females),
- From a few to 100s or 1000 workers (sterile females),
- occasionally some males.
The wasps exhibit many behaviours:
- Some behaviours involve a single wasps: foraging, feeding the larvae etc.
- Some behaviours involve interactions of wasps with each other: Food sharing, grooming each other, showing
aggressive behaviours to each other. - aggressive behaviours involve: nibbling, biting, pulling, pushing, chasing, rigorously attacking or on rare occasions
stinging each other
describe the Ropalidia marginata lore
A primitively eusocial wasp – queens
(reproductive) and workers (non-reproductive)
look similar and their roles can be reversible
* Found commonly in India
* Has been studied extensively for last 40 years
by group of Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar
Why do wasps show aggression?
- Against intruders
- Against wasps from other nests
- In stage of colony-founding, in a group, when
they have to decide who would become the queen
These reasons were already known.
In primitively eusocial wasps studied so far:
Queen is a physically aggressive individual.
- But R. marginata queen is unusual: she starts
her career as an aggressive individual, but
gradually reduces her aggression to become a
docile individual – Why? → Question 1. - Workers do show aggression on day to day
basis – Why? → Question 2.
We had a hunch that workers may use aggression to tell
each other about larval hunger:
If larvae are not hungry → the worker wasps perceive it →
these wasps do not show aggression to foragers who take it
that less / no food is needed.
- Day 1: Normal nest
- Day 2: Excessive feeding
- Day 3: Normal nest
Expectation: If larval hunger is less → then less aggression
shown on the nest
