Queen Regulation of Worker Foraging in Paper Wasps: a Social Feedback Control System (Polistes Fuscatus, Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Behaviour ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 102 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 147-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hudson K. Reeve ◽  
George J. Gamboa

AbstractWe examined the queen's role in regulation of worker foraging in small field colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp, Polistes fuscatus (29 colonies; 148 h observation). Queen removal results in a significant reduction in worker departure rate. The placement of a cooled, inactive queen into her queenless nest produces a significantly greater reduction in worker departure rate than does queen removal, and the resumption of activity by an inactive queen causes a significant increase in worker departure rate. Removal or cooling of a single worker does not produce similar effects on worker foraging, suggesting that the queen is the central regulator of worker foraging in small P. fuscatus colonies. We present evidence that: (1) the queen's control of worker foraging is mediated primarily by her influence on worker nest activity, (2) queen aggression may be important in stimulating departures by workers with low tendencies to leave the nest (i.e., dominant workers), and (3) the magnitude of the queen's stimulatory influence on worker foraging is directly related to the number of workers on the nest. We integrate these results with evidence from our other studies of polistine colony dynamics in a feedback control model of the social regulation of foraging.

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1687) ◽  
pp. 20150093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Field ◽  
Ellouise Leadbeater

In cooperatively breeding vertebrates, the existence of individuals that help to raise the offspring of non-relatives is well established, but unrelated helpers are less well known in the social insects. Eusocial insect groups overwhelmingly consist of close relatives, so populations where unrelated helpers are common are intriguing. Here, we focus on Polistes dominula— the best-studied primitively eusocial wasp, and a species in which nesting with non-relatives is not only present but frequent. We address two major questions: why individuals should choose to nest with non-relatives, and why such individuals participate in the costly rearing of unrelated offspring. Polistes dominula foundresses produce more offspring of their own as subordinates than when they nest independently, providing a potential explanation for co-founding by non-relatives. There is some evidence that unrelated subordinates tailor their behaviour towards direct fitness, while the role of recognition errors in generating unrelated co-foundresses is less clear. Remarkably, the remote but potentially highly rewarding chance of inheriting the dominant position appears to strongly influence behaviour, suggesting that primitively eusocial insects may have much more in common with their social vertebrate counterparts than has commonly been thought.


1991 ◽  
Vol 78 (11) ◽  
pp. 523-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Gadagkar ◽  
K. Chandrashekara ◽  
S. Chandran ◽  
S. Bhagavan

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sumana ◽  
Sujata A. Deshpande ◽  
Anindita Bhadra ◽  
Raghavendra Gadagkar

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-65
Author(s):  
Paromita Saha ◽  
Anjan K. Nandi ◽  
Sruthi Unnikrishnan ◽  
M. C. Shilpa ◽  
Shantanu P. Shukla ◽  
...  

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