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Individually distinctive facial patterning without a signal value: a case of ‘missing’ social knowledge in the paper wasp Polistes versicolor?

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Abstract

Inter-specific variation in the occurrence of individual recognition (IR) has mostly been examined in species that differ with respect to two critical conditions necessary for such ability: presence of complex social behaviours and sender’s distinctiveness. However, variation in IR when species share such conditions is lesser known. We tested for IR in the paper wasp Polistes versicolor and compared the results with published information on IR in Polistes fuscatus. Both species have a flexible nest-founding behaviour and form dominance hierarchies. Additionally, both have individually distinctive facial patterns. P. versicolor faces are highly variable, and they do not appear to be associated with individual quality, consistent with the role as cues in IR. However, the wasps did not discriminate between nestmates with familiar and unfamiliar faces. Besides, wasps did not discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar social partners. Familiar discrimination (discrimination of individuals based on prior social interactions) is considered the first stage toward IR; therefore, P. versicolor wasps, unlike P. fuscatus, lack the ability for IR. Our results suggest that the high variation in colour pattern may not be a good proxy for the occurrence of IR in paper wasps and that neutral variation may be an underestimated factor promoting phenotypic variability.

Significance statement

High inter-individual phenotypic variability in primitively eusocial paper wasps has sometimes been considered to be a result of selection for efficient individual identity signalling, especially because senders may benefit from being individually recognised. P. versicolor paper wasp females have highly variable inter-individual facial patterns. However, we demonstrated that they lack individual recognition. After excluding some potentially confounding hypothesis, we conclude that selection for efficient individual identity signalling is not the only factor promoting phenotypic variability in paper wasps and that at least in some species, neutral variation may play a role.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Camilla Folly Baptista for drawing the wasp face, to Jose Lino-Neto for providing equipment for image acquisition and to Diego Santana de Assis for helping with statistical analyses.

Funding information

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) (under the grants 2015/05302-0 to AR de Souza and 2015/25301-9 to FS Nascimento).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    André Rodrigues de Souza & Fábio Santos do Nascimento

  2. Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Gabrazane Venâncio Marques Teixeira

Authors
  1. André Rodrigues de Souza
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  2. Gabrazane Venâncio Marques Teixeira
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  3. Fábio Santos do Nascimento
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Correspondence to André Rodrigues de Souza.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Field

Electronic supplementary material

SuppInfo 1

Examples of female P. versicolor faces, showing their variation (antennae were partly removed). (JPEG 9790 kb)

SuppInfo 2

Raw data used for statistical analyses. (XLS 86 kb)

SuppInfo 3

Plot of the scores of two main principal components (PC1 and PC2) obtained from the continuous variation in visual markings on the faces of P. versicolor foundresses (A) and workers (B). Each circle represents an individual. Circles of the same colour represents individuals from the same nest. A proper visualisation requires a close up. (JPEG 932 kb)

SuppInfo 4

Behavioural parameters of nestmates when interacting with focal wasps (foundresses or workers) with unfamiliar (treatment) or familiar (control) face, during 30-min of observation under field conditions (N = 10 focal foundresses and 8 focal workers, each from a different nest). (XLS 34 kb)

SuppInfo 5

Behavioural parameters during 30-min dyadic encounters (one round per day, Days 1–4) among wasps (foundresses or workers) with (Day 3) and without (Days 1, 2 and 4) familiarity, under laboratory conditions. (N = 29 focal foundresses ad 14 focal workers, each from a different nest). (XLS 64 kb)

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de Souza, A.R., Teixeira, G.V.M. & do Nascimento, F.S. Individually distinctive facial patterning without a signal value: a case of ‘missing’ social knowledge in the paper wasp Polistes versicolor?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 71, 157 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-017-2388-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-017-2388-z

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