Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Dispersal decisions and predispersal behavior in Polistes paper wasp ‘workers’

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Social insects are popular models for studying the evolution of cooperation. Casteless taxa where individuals have the flexibility to either nest alone or cooperate are particularly valuable for understanding the causes and consequences of cooperative behavior. For example, some ‘workers’ from Polistes paper wasp nests disappear from their natal colony soon after pupal emergence and nest independently. However, little is known about dispersal behavior. In this paper, I compare predispersal behavior of wasps who leave their natal colony soon after emergence with behavior of individuals who remain on the natal colony as true workers. I found that P. dominulus females with short nest tenure behave much like gynes (reproductive-destined offspring produced at the end of the season), as wasps with short nest tenure are behaviorally selfish while on the natal colony. They spend a smaller proportion of their time foraging and a larger proportion of their time resting than workers with long nest tenure. In addition, I assessed the factors that may favor early dispersal. Nest environment strongly influenced dispersal; large colonies had a smaller proportion of females with short nest tenure. Queen turnover also increased dispersal behavior perhaps because queen turnover reduces relatedness between a colony’s current and future offspring, thereby reducing the kin-selected benefits of cooperation. Therefore, casteless social insects exhibit a surprising degree of reproductive flexibility. Individuals may use information about their internal state and nest environment to optimize their behavioral strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andersson M (1994) Sexual selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Cant MA, Field J (2001) Helping effort and future fitness in cooperative animal societies. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 268:1959–1964

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cervo R, Zacchi F, Turillazzi S (2000) Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) invading North America: some hypotheses for its rapid spread. Insectes Soc 47:155–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choe J, Crespi B (1997) The evolution of social behavior in insects and arachnids. Cambridge University Press, Massachusetts

    Google Scholar 

  • Emlen ST (1991) Evolution of cooperative breeding in birds and mammals. In: Krebs JR, Davies NB (eds) Behavioural ecology: an evolutionary approach, 3rd edn. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, UK, pp 301–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Emlen ST (1995) An evolutionary theory of the family. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 92:8092–8099

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Field J, Cronin A, Bridge C (2006) Future fitness and helping in social queues. Nature 441:214–217

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gadagkar R (1991) Belonogaster, Mischocyttarus, Parapolybia, and independent-founding Ropalidia. In: Ross KG, Matthews RW (eds) The social biology of wasps. Comstock, Ithaca, NY, pp 149–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin AS, West SA (2003) Kin discrimination and the benefit of helping in cooperatively breeding vertebrates. Science 302:634–636

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hagiwara Y, Kojima J (2002) Reproductive options for first brood “workers” emerging in orphan nests of Polistes nipponensis (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). Insectes Soc 49:191–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton WD (1964a) Genetical evolution of social behaviour I. J Theor Biol 7:17–52

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton WD (1964b) Genetical evolution of social behaviour II. J Theor Biol 7:1–16

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt JH (1991) Nourishment and the evolution of the social Vespidae. In: Ross KG, Matthews RW (eds) The social biology of wasps. Comstock Publishing, London, pp 426–450

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt J, Bussiere LF, Jennions MD, Brooks R (2004) What is genetic quality? Trends Ecol Evol 19:329–333

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jennions MD, Moller AP, Petrie M (2001) Sexually selected traits and adult survival: a meta-analysis. Quart Rev Biol 76:3–36

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson RN, Starks PT (2004) A surprising level of genetic diversity in an invasive wasp: Polistes dominulus in the northeastern United States. Ann Entomol Soc Am 97:732–737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keeping MG (1992) Social organization and division of labor in colonies of the Polistine Wasp, Belonogaster petiolata. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 31:211–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller L (1997) Indiscriminate altruism: unduly nice parents and siblings. Trends Ecol Evol 12:99–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klahn J (1988) Intraspecific comb usurpation in the social wasp Polistes fuscatus. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 23:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig WD, Pitelka FA, Carmen WJ, Mumme RL, Stanback MT (1992) The evolution of delayed dispersal in cooperative breeders. Quart Rev Biol 67:111–150

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Komdeur J (1994) The effect of kinship on helping in the cooperative breeding Seychelles Warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis). Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 256:47–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komdeur J (2006) Variation in individual investment strategies among social animals. Ethology 112:729–747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lacey EA, Sherman PW (2005) Redefining eusociality: concepts, goals and levels of analysis. Ann Zool Fenn 42:573–577

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindstrom J (1999) Early development and fitness in birds and mammals. Trends Ecol Evol 14:343–348

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mead F, Gabouriaut D, Habersetzer C (1995) Nest-founding behavior induced in the first descendants of Polistes dominulus Christ (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) colonies. Insectes Soc 42:385–396

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe NB, Monaghan P (2001) Compensation for a bad start: grow now, pay later? Trends Ecol Evol 16:254–260

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen MG (2001) Energetic cost of foraging in the ant Rhytidoponera aurata in tropical Australia. Physiol Entomol 26:248–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nonacs P, Reeve HK (1995) The ecology of cooperation in wasps—causes and consequences of alternative reproductive decisions. Ecology 76:953–967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell S (1998) Reproductive caste determination in eusocial wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Annu Rev Entomol 43:323–346

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell S, Jeanne RL (1992) Lifelong patterns of forager behavior in a tropical swarm-founding wasp—effects of specialization and activity level on longevity. Anim Behav 44:1021–1027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page RE, Post DC, Metcalf RA (1989) Satellite nests, early males, and plasticity of reproductive behavior in a paper wasp. Am Nat 134:731–748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pardi L (1948) Ricerche sui Polistini. 11. Sulla durata della permanenza delle feminine nel nido e sull’ accrescimento della societa in Polistes gallicus (L.). Atti della Societa Toscana di Scienze Naturali 55:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Queller DC (1989) The evolution of eusociality—reproductive head starts of workers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86:3224–3226

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Queller DC, Peters JM, Solis CR, Strassmann JE (1997) Control of reproduction in social insect colonies: individual and collective relatedness preferences in the paper wasp, Polistes annularis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 40:3–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratnieks FLW, Foster KR, Wenseleers T (2006) Conflict resolution in insect societies. Annu Rev Entomol 51:581–608

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reeve HK (1991) Polistes. In: Ross KG, Matthews RW (eds) The social biology of wasps. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, pp 99–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeve HK, Peters JM, Nonacs P, Starks PT (1998) Dispersal of first “workers” in social wasps: causes and implications of an alternative reproductive strategy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:13737–13742

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reyer HU (1984) Investment and relatedness—a cost benefit analysis of breeding and helping in the Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis). Anim Behav 32:1163–1178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid-Hempel P, Wolf T (1988) Foraging effort and life-span of workers in a social insect. J Anim Ecol 57:509–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon BC (1994) Male phenotype, fertility, and the pursuit of extrapair copulations by female birds. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 257:25–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherman PW, Lacey EA, Reeve HK, Keller L (1995) The eusociality continuum. Behav Ecol 6:102–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solis CR, Strassmann JE (1990) Presence of brood affects caste differentiation in the social wasp, Polistes exclamans Viereck (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). Funct Ecol 4:531–541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Starks PT (2001) Alternative reproductive tactics in the paper wasp Polistes dominulus with specific focus on the sit-and-wait tactic. Ann Zool Fenn 38:189–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Strassmann JE (1981) Evolutionary implications of early male and satellite nest production in Polistes exclamans colony cycles. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 8:55–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strassmann JE (1996) Selective altruism towards closer over more distant relatives in colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp, Polistes. In: Turillazzi S, West-Eberhard MJ (eds) Natural history and evolution of paper-wasps. Oxford University Press, NY, pp 190–201

    Google Scholar 

  • Strassmann JE, Fortunato A, Cervo R, Turillazzi S, Damon JM, Queller DC (2004) The cost of queen loss in the social wasp Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). J Kansas Entomol Soc 77:343–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbetts EA (2006) Badges-of-status in worker and gyne Polistes dominulus wasps. Ann Zool Fenn 43:575–582

    Google Scholar 

  • Tibbetts EA, Curtis TR (2007) Rearing conditions influence quality signals but not individual identity signals in Polistes wasps. Behav Ecol 18:602–607

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbetts EA, Dale J (2004) A socially enforced signal of quality in a paper wasp. Nature 432:218–222

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbetts EA, Reeve HK (2000) Aggression and resource sharing among foundresses in the social wasp Polistes dominulus: testing transactional theories of conflict. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 48:344–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turillazzi S (1991) The Stenogastrinae. In: Ross KG, Matthews RW (eds) The social biology of wasps. Comstock, Ithaca, NY, pp 74–98

    Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard M (1969) The social biology of Polistine wasps. Misc Publ Mus Zool Univ Mich 140:1–101

    Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard MJ (1981) Intragroup selection and the evolution of insect societies. In: Alexander RD, Tinkle DW (eds) Natural selection and social behaviour: recent research and new theory. Chiron, New York, pp 3–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler DE (1986) Developmental and physiological determinants of caste in social Hymenoptera—evolutionary implications. Am Nat 128:13–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EO (1971) The insect societies. Belknap, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Yanega D (1989) Caste determination and differential diapause within the 1st brood of Halictus rubicundus in New York (Hymenoptera, Halictidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 24:97–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

Thanks to J. Shorter for videotape analysis, M. Tyner for help with facial pattern analysis and data entry, as well as B. Daley, K. Ross, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. This manuscript complies with the laws of the United States.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 830 N. University, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1048, USA

    Elizabeth A. Tibbetts

Authors
  1. Elizabeth A. Tibbetts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth A. Tibbetts.

Additional information

Communicated by K. Ross

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tibbetts, E.A. Dispersal decisions and predispersal behavior in Polistes paper wasp ‘workers’. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 1877–1883 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0427-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0427-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation