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The Ecology and Evolution of Helping in Hover Wasps (Hymenoptera: Stenogastrinae)

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Ecology of Social Evolution

In this chapter, I discuss the ecology and evolution of helping in hover wasps (Stenogastrinae), a tropical group that is uniquely suited for experimental studies in the field. I first outline the ecological benefits of helping that have been tested for in hover wasps, such as insurance advantages and direct fitness for helpers. I then discuss explanations for individual variation in helping decisions –why only some female offspring become helpers; and why some helpers work harder than others. Most of the chapter focuses on the hairy-faced hover wasp, whose behavioral ecology is best known, but I also discuss reproductive skew and task allocation in other species, and draw comparisons with other wasps where appropriate. The chapter ends with a comparison of the ecology of helping in hover wasps and that in cooperatively breeding vertebrates. The conclusion is that although helping can be understood using Hamilton’s inclusive fitness framework in both of these major taxa, the critical ecological factors differ fundamentally between them.

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  1. Department of Biology, University College London, UK

    Jeremy Field

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  1. Universität Regensburg, 93040, Regensburg, Germany

    Judith Korb  & Jörgen Heinze  & 

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Field, J. (2008). The Ecology and Evolution of Helping in Hover Wasps (Hymenoptera: Stenogastrinae). In: Korb, J., Heinze, J. (eds) Ecology of Social Evolution. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75957-7_4

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