Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Seasonal dynamics of the phenotypic structure of a population of the paper wasp Polistes dominulus (Christ) (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)

  • Published:
Entomological Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Seasonal changes in the coloration of the clypeus, mesonotum, and abdomen were studied in populations of the paper wasp, Polistes dominulus (Christ) in southern Ukraine. The color patterns in the populations were found to be different before and after hibernation. The frequencies of color morphs observed in the autumns of different years are similar, while the frequencies observed in spring vary from year to year. A tendency for pleometrosis is manifested by females of different color morphs in different years. The nest usurpers have darker patterns of the clypeus. A polyfunctional role of the coloration and pattern is supposed.

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

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Archer, M.E., “The Taxonomy of Vespa crabro L. and V. dybowskii Andre (Hymenoptera, Vespinae),” Entomol. Month. Mag. 128, 157–163 (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Clapperton, B.K., Lo, P.L., Moller, H., and Sandlant, G.R., “Variation in Color Markings of German Wasps Vespula germanica (F.) and Common Wasps Vespula vulgaris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in New Zealand,” New Zealand J. Zool. 16, 303–313 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Das, B.P. and Gupta, V.K., “The Social Wasps of India and the Adjacent Countries (Hymenoptera: Vespidae),” Orient. Ins. Monogr. 11, 1–292 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Eck, R., “Zur Verbreitung und Variabilität von Dolichovespula norwegica (Hymenoptera: Vespidae),” Entomol. Abhandl. 44(7), 133–152 (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Eck, R., “Zur Verbreitung und Variabilität von Dolichovespula saxonica,” Entomol. Abhandl. 46(8), 151–176 (1983).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Eck, R., “Zur Verbreitung von Dolichovespula loekenae Eck und ihrer Stellung zu den nächstverwandten Arten,” Entomol. Abhandl. 48(2), 13–22 (1984).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Eck, R., “Zur Populationsgliederung und Zoogeographie von Vespula vulgaris: Faktoren der intraspezifischen Merkmalsänderungen (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Vespidae),” Entomol. Abhandl. 58(17), 309–342 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Enteman, W.M., Coloration in Polistes (Carnegie Inst., Washington, 1904).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Eremina, I.V., “Degree of Phene Pool Realization as an Indication of the Microevolutionary State of a Population,” in Phenetics of Natural Populations (Nauka, Moscow, 1988), pp. 177–185 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gamboa, G.J., “Intraspecific Defense: Advantage of Social Cooperation among Paper Wasps Foundresses,” Science 199, 1463–1465 (1978).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Gamboa, G.J., “Comparative Timing of Brood Development between Multiple-and Single-Foundress Colonies of the Paper Wasp, Polistes metricus,” Ecol. Entomol. 5, 221–225 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gervet, J., “La ponte et sa regulation dans la société polygyne de Polistes gallicus L. (Hymenoptera, Vespidae),” Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. Biol. Anim. 6, 601–778 (1964).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gibo, D.L., “A Laboratory Study on the Selective Advantage of Foundress Associations in Polistes fuscatus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae),” Canad. Entomol. 106, 101–106 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gibo, D.L., “The Selective Advantage of Foundress Associations in Polistes fuscatus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae): a Field Study of the Effects of Predation on Productivity,” Canad. Entomol. 110, 519–540 (1978).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Grechka, E.O. and Kipyatkov, V.E., “Seasonal Cycle of Development and Caste Differentiation in the Wasp Polistes gallicus L. (Hymenoptera, Vespidae): II. Dynamics of the Colony Growth and Production,” Zool. Zh. 63(1), 81–94 (1984).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Grechka, E.O. and Rusina, L.Yu., “On the Ways of Nest Founding in Polistine Wasps,” in Proc. of Workshops on Social Insects (St.-Petersburg, 1993), pp. 151–157.

  17. Itô, Y., Behavior and Social Evolution of Wasps: the Communal Aggregation Hypothesis (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Novozhenov, Yu.I., “Polymorphism and Adaptability of Populations,” in Fauna and Ecology of Insects in the Urals (Sverdlovsk, 1987), pp. 3–15 [in Russian].

  19. Novozhenov, Yu.I., “Chronographic Variability of Populations,” Zh. Obshch. Biol. 50(2), 171–183 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Novozhenov, Yu.I., “Principal Results of Studying Insect Polymorphism,” in Progress of Entomology in the Ural Region (Yekaterinburg, 1997), pp. 148–152 [in Russian].

  21. Pekkarinen, A. and Gustafsson, B., “The Polistes Species in Northern Europe (Hymenoptera: Vespidae),” Entomol. Fenn. 10, 191–194 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Reeve, H.K., “Polistes,” in The Social Biology of Wasps, Ed. by K.L. Ross and R.W. Matthews (New York, 1991), pp. 99–148.

  23. Röseler, P.-F., “Endocrine Basis of Dominance in Polistine Paper Wasp,” Fortschr. Zool. 31, 259–272 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Röseler, P.-F., Röseler, I., Strambi, A., and Auger, R., “Influence of Insect Hormones on the Establishment of Dominance Hierarchies among Foundresses of the Paper Wasp, Polistes gallicus,” Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 15, 133–142 (1984).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Röseler, P.-F., Röseler, I., and Strambi, A., “Studies of the Dominance Hierarchy in the Paper Wasp, Polistes gallicus (L.),” Monitore Zool. Ital. (N. S.) 20, 283–290 (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Rusina, L.Yu., “Social Structure of Pleometrotic Colonies of Polistine Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the Southern Ukraine,” Vestnik Zool. 4–5, 3–10 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Rusina, L.Yu., “The Impact of Birds and a Grasshopper Decticus verrucivorus (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) on Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) and P. gallicus Paper-Wasp Populations in the Black Sea Reserve,” Vestnik Zool. 37, 96 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Rusina, L.Yu., Nitochko, M.I., and Shevtsova, O.N., “Spatial Structure of Polistes dominulus (Christ) Population (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve,” in Problems of Preservation and Restoration of Steppe Ecosystems. Proc. Int. Workshops (Orenburg, 1999), pp. 119–121.

  29. Rusina, L.Yu., Skorokhod, O.V., and Gilev, A.V., “Distinct Coloration Variants in the Wasp Polistes dominulus (Christ) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve,” Trudy Russ. Entomol. O-va 75(1), 270–277 (2004a).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Rusina, L.Yu., Skorokhod, O.V., and Gilev, A.V., “Analysis of Phenotypic Differences in the Wasp Polistes dominulus,” in Topical Problems of Preservation of Stable Biosystems. Proc. VIII Int. Ecological Conf. (Belgorod, 2004b), pp. 187–188.

  31. Sergievskii, S.O., “Functionality and Plasticity of the Genetic Polymorphism, by the Example of the Population Melanism in the Ladybug Adalia bipunctata (L.),” Zh. Obshch. Biol. 66(4), 491–502 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Sergievskii, S.O., “Polymorphism as a Universal Adaptive Population Strategy,” Trudy Zool. Inst. AN SSSR 160, 41–58 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Strambi, C, Strambi, A., and Augier, R., “Protein Level in the Haemolymph of the Wasp Polistes gallicus L. at the Beginning of Imaginal Life and during Overwintering. Action of the Strepsipteran Parasite Xenox vesparum Rossi,” Experientia 38, 1189–1190 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Strassmann, J.E., “Parasitoids, Predators and Group Size in the Paper-Wasp, Polistes exclamans,” Ecology 62, 1225–1233 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Tibbets, E.A. and Dale, J., “A Socially Enforced Signal of Quality in a Paper Wasp,” Nature 432, 218–222 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Timofeev-Ressovsky, N.V., Yablokov, A.V., and Glotov, N.V., A Brief Outline of the Population Concepts (Nauka, Moscow, 1973) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  37. Tobias, V.I., “Subfamily Vespoidea,” in A Key to Insects of the European Part of the USSR. Hymenoptera (Nauka, Moscow, 1981), Vol. 3, Chapter 1, pp. 147–152 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  38. Turillazzi, S., “Nest Usurpation and Social Parasitism in Polistes Wasps: New Acquisitions and Current Problems,” in Biology and Evolution of Social Insects, Ed. by J. Billen (Leuven Univ. Press, 1992), pp. 263–272.

  39. Tibbets, E.A., “Visual Signals of Individual Identity in the Wasp Polistes fuscatus,” Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. (B) 269, 1423–1428 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. West-Eberhard, M.J., “Foundress Associations in Polistine Wasps: Dominance Hierarchies and the Evolution of Social Behavior,” Science 157, 1584–1585 (1967).

    Google Scholar 

  41. West-Eberhard, M.J., “The Social Biology of Polistine Wasps,” Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan 140, 1–101 (1969).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Yablokov, A.V., “The Population Morphology, as a New Direction of Evolutionary, Morphological, and Population Studies,” Zh. Obshch. Biol. 37(5), 649–659 (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Yablokov, A.V., The Population Biology (Vysshaya Shkola, Moscow, 1987) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  44. Yablokov, A.V. and Larina, N.I., Introduction to the Population Phenetics. A New Approach to Studying Natural Populations (Vysshaya Shkola, Moscow, 1985) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    L. Yu. Rusina, A. V. Gilev, O. V. Skorokhod & L. A. Firman

  2. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Division, Russian Academy of Sciences Kherson State University, Kherson, 73000, Ukraine

    L. Yu. Rusina, A. V. Gilev, O. V. Skorokhod & L. A. Firman

Authors
  1. L. Yu. Rusina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. V. Gilev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. O. V. Skorokhod
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. L. A. Firman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Original Russian Text © L. Yu. Rusina, A. V. Gilev, O. V. Skorokhod, and L. A. Firman, 2006, published in Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 2006, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 39–48.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rusina, L.Y., Gilev, A.V., Skorokhod, O.V. et al. Seasonal dynamics of the phenotypic structure of a population of the paper wasp Polistes dominulus (Christ) (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). Entmol. Rev. 86, 168–175 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873806020059

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873806020059

Keywords

Search

Navigation