Nestmate recognition in three species of stenogastrine wasps (Hymenoptera,Vespidae) |
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Authors: | R Cervo Francesca R Dani Stefano Turillazzi |
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Institution: | (1) Dipartimento di Biologia animale e Genetica, via Romana 17, I-50125 Florence, Italy, IT;(2) Centro per lo studio della Faunistica ed Ecologia Tropicali del C.N.R., via Romana 17, I-50125, Florence, Italy, IT |
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Abstract: | The capacity to recognise a conspecific intruder was investigated in Parischnogaster jacobsoni, Liostenogaster flavolineata and L. vechti, three species of primitively social wasps of the subfamily Stenogastrinae. Results of behavioural experiments carried out
in the field showed that females of all three species react pacifically if presented with female nestmates, but aggressively
reject an intruder from a conspecific colony. As L. flavolineata and L. vechti both build large clusters of nests, often very close to each other, the recognition capacity among females from different
nests, but in the same conspecific cluster, was also investigated. Females of both species were more aggressive towards females
from a different colony in the same cluster than towards their female nestmates. Additional experiments on L. flavolineata showed that there was no difference in reaction towards females from colonies nearer or further from the tested colony but
within the same cluster, nor towards females from a different cluster. The capacity to recognise an alien conspecific nest
containing immature brood was investigated in P. jacobsoni. Adult females of this species, invited to land on an alien nest which had experimentally been exchanged for their own, accepted
the new nest and partially destroyed the immature brood. The behaviour of the females when they land on an alien nest, however,
suggests that they do recognise the nest as foreign. Acceptance of foreign nests coupled with low immature brood destruction
is probably due to the high energetic costs of egg-deposition and larval rearing in stenogastrine wasps.
These results suggest that nestmate recognition in these wasps is very efficient, even though they belong to the most primitive
subfamily of social wasps.
Received: 16 April 1996/Accepted after revision: 9 August 1996 |
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Keywords: | Nestmate recognition Immature brood recognition Nest recognition Stenogastrinae Vespidae |
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