Emergence and dispersal relative to natal nest in the digger wasp Stizus continuus (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

Polidori, Carlo; Giordani, Irene; Mendiola, Pablo; Asís, Josep Daniel; Tormos, José; Selfa, Jesús

doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2009.11.014

Cited by 8 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…This contrasts to other species [Pfennig and Reeve, 1989], and suggests either a random dispersal of some nest-abandoning females [Polidori et al, 2010b] or a strong nest-reuse year by year [Polidori et al, 2006a], which would maintain high relatedness within nests. As a matter of fact, soil hardness was high at the nesting sites of several nest-sharing Cerceris, including C. rubida at our study site [Alcock, 1980 and references therein;Polidori, unpublished data]; the difficulty to dig new nests would limit dispersal and favor remaining in the natal nests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The wasps from different nests could be related genetically at a variable level. In some digger wasps, it was shown that females nesting in close vicinity are more related [Pfennig and Reeve, 1989], but in other species emerging females disperse randomly with respect to their natal nests [Polidori et al, 2010b]. In Cerceris spp., subsequent generations tend to reuse their nests year by year [Polidori et al, 2006a].…”

Section: Circle-tube Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nest membership determines the levels of aggression and cooperation between females of a supposedly communal digger wasp

Boesi

Polidori

2011

Aggressive Behavior

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Females of communal and eusocial Hymenoptera differ greatly in the treatment of conspecifics: communal species lack the nest membership-bias treatment via nestmate (NM) recognition, which is typical of eusocial Hymenoptera. Therefore, an analysis of social interactions can suggest whether a given bee or wasp is communal or eusocial. For this reason, we observed females of the digger wasp Cerceris rubida in experimental dyadic encounters. Because this species had previously been labeled "communal," we expected to find little evidence of a NM bias with respect to cooperation or aggression when paired with NMs and non-nestmates (NNM). Contrary to expectation, females were highly cooperative toward NMs and highly aggressive toward NNMs. Variation in the intensity of aggression toward NNMs partially stems from the degree to which the paired females differed in size. From these results and quantitative comparisons with studies on solitary, communal, and eusocial bee species, it appears that C. rubida has a more complex social organization than previously believed and, in particular, that females of this species exhibit NM recognition, a trait associated with eusociality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Circle-tube Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nest membership determines the levels of aggression and cooperation between females of a supposedly communal digger wasp

Boesi

Polidori

2011

Aggressive Behavior

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“…As predicted, we found that male density was high (and the sex ratio possibly male biased). The host wasp of N. viduata at site A, S. continuus, also exhibits high male density and aggregated nests, although not a male-biased sex ratio (Polidori et al, 2010b). As a matter of fact, males of this species are territorial (Asís et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scramble competition by males of the velvet ant Nemka viduata (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae)

Polidori¹,

Benéitez²,

Asís³

et al. 2013

Behav

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The mating systems of mutillid wasps have rarely been studied. Here we present information on the mating system of Nemka viduata. At a site in southern Spain, many males of this species were seen flying over host (digger wasp) nest aggregations while searching for females. Male activity was greatest in the early morning and late afternoon, when females were more active searching for hosts, and on days when relatively large numbers of females were active. Males were not territorial but instead attempted to find emerging females before their competitors. As many as six males might arrive at a receptive female more or less simultaneously. Struggles to control access to females continued until one male copulated with the female on the ground or carried it off in flight to a location away from rival males. Male size seems to affect the patrolling behaviour (number of patrolled sites), but there is little evidence of an advantage for larger males, as expected in a scramble competition mating system. Scramble competition mating systems often evolve in species in which large numbers of males compete for scarce receptive females, a factor that makes male territorial defence of large areas highly costly.

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“…To analyse whether the females tend to establish new nests close to their own previously completed ones, we measured the distance between previous and subsequent nests. We then compared, with a paired Student's t-test, the observed distances with the mean distances obtained by 1000 random simulations (Urbaniak & Plous 2013), taking into account the maximum distance the wasp could reach if not dispersing towards other nesting aggregations or in yet uncolonized areas (Polidori et al 2010b). We considered as maximum distance the distance to the farthermost nest dug in the patch.…”

Section: Are Individual Nesting Wasps Affected By Their Own Previous mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Nest‐Settlement Decisions in Digger Wasps: Conspecifics Matter more than Heterospecifics and Previous Experience

et al. 2014

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Research into the driving forces behind spatial arrangement of wasp nests has considered abiotic environmental factors, but seldom investigated attraction or repulsion towards conspecifics or heterospecifics. Solitary female digger wasps (Hymenoptera) often nest in dense aggregations, making these insects good models to study this topic. Here, we analysed the nesting patterns in an area shared by three species of the genus Bembix, in a novel study to discover whether female wasps are attracted to or repulsed by conspecific nests, heterospecific nests or their own previously established nests when choosing nest‐digging locations. Early in the season, each species showed a clumping pattern of nests, but later in the season, a random distribution of nests was more common, suggesting an early conspecific attraction. Such behaviour was confirmed by the fact that females started building their nests more frequently where other females of their species were simultaneously digging. The distances between subsequent nests dug by individual females were shorter than those obtained by random simulations. However, this pattern seemed to depend on the tendency to dig close to conspecifics rather than remain in the vicinity of previous nests, suggesting that females' experience matters to future decisions only on a large scale. Nesting patches within nest aggregations largely overlapped between species, but the nests of each species were generally not closer to heterospecific nests than expected by chance, suggesting that females are neither repulsed by, nor attracted to, congenerics within nest aggregations. A role of the spatial distribution of natural enemies on the observed nesting patterns seemed unlikely. Bembix digger wasp nest aggregations seem thus to be primarily the result of female–female attraction during nest‐settlement decisions, in accordance with the ‘copying’ mechanisms suggested for nesting vertebrates.

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Emergence and dispersal relative to natal nest in the digger wasp Stizus continuus (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

Cited by 8 publications

References 34 publications

Nest membership determines the levels of aggression and cooperation between females of a supposedly communal digger wasp

Nest membership determines the levels of aggression and cooperation between females of a supposedly communal digger wasp

Scramble competition by males of the velvet ant Nemka viduata (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae)

Spatial Nest‐Settlement Decisions in Digger Wasps: Conspecifics Matter more than Heterospecifics and Previous Experience

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