Postural analysis reveals persistent vigilance in paper wasps after conspecific challenge

Abstract

Vigilant animals detect and respond to threats in the environment, often changing posture and movement patterns. In social animals vigilance is modulated not only by predators but also by threatening conspecifics. Precisely how social interactions alter vigilance behavior over time is not well understood. We report persistent effects of a simulated social challenge on the vigilance behavior of wild northern paper wasp foundresses, Polistes fuscatus. During the founding phase of the colony cycle conspecific wasps may usurp nests from the resident foundress, representing a severe threat. Using postural tracking, we found that after simulated intrusions wasps displayed increased vigilance during the minutes after the threat was removed. Sustained vigilance elicited after social threat manifested as increased movement, greater bilateral wing extension, and reduced antennal separation. However, no postural changes were observed after a control stimulus presentation. By rapidly adjusting individual vigilance behavior after fending off a conspecific intruder, paper wasp foundresses invest in surveillance of potential social threats, even when such threats are no longer immediately present. The prolonged state of vigilance observed here is relevant to plasticity of recognition processes as a result of conspecific threats.

Neural correlates of individual facial recognition in a social wasp

“…Given the overall responses in the wasp brain to wasp shapes and colors, we hypothesized that wasp cells might be tuned to body shape (posture) and/or facial patterning (color) and thus show variable firing rates across one or both of these components in stimulus images. If wasp cells responded more variably to different bodies, it would suggest possible postural signal encoding, which is known in this species (44). Alternatively, if wasp cells varied more across the different facial patterns, it would suggest selectivity for the smaller area of the wasp image that contains the relevant facial identity information.…”

Postural analysis reveals persistent changes in paper wasp foundress behavioral state after conspecific challenge

“…Videos are available for open access in CERN's Zenodo repository (Legan, 2022 ; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6582229 ). Raw data from automated tracking are available in the Figshare repository (Legan et al, 2023 ; https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22706437 ).…”