The look of royalty: visual and odour signals of reproductive status in a paper wasp

Tannure-Nascimento, Ivelize C.; Nascimento, Fábio Santos do; Zucchi, Ronaldo

doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0589

Cited by 57 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Reproductive status (measured as ovarian development) was found to be linked to variation of visual signals both in the stenogastrine wasp L. vechti (Baracchi et al 2013) and in P. satan (Tannure-Nascimento et al 2008), being the wasps with more developed ovaries (i.e. dominant individuals) those with more dark facial markings.…”

Section: Status Recognition and Quality Signalsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Visual Recognition in Social Wasps

Cervo

Cini

Turillazzi

2015

Social Recognition in Invertebrates

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Social recognition, i.e. the ability to recognize and assign individual membership to a particular and relevant class, such as caste, dominance status, gender or colony, shapes the amazing organization of insect societies. Traditionally, it has been assumed that social recognition in social insects is mainly governed by chemicals. However, social insects also share information via many other sensory channels, and it has been recently demonstrated that visual signals can mediate several types of social recognition in some species of social wasps. Primitively social wasps, such as paper wasps of Polistes genus, are suitable models to investigate visual communication because their combs lack of envelops allowing light to produce visual cues, their colonies are small, they have a good vision, they show a remarkable individual within-colony colour variation and, finally, they show an intense social life based on social recognition. In this chapter we reviewed the role of visual cues in social recognition inside and outside social wasp colonies focusing both on the intraspecific and interspecific recognition contexts.

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Section: Status Recognition and Quality Signalsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Visual Recognition in Social Wasps

Cervo

Cini

Turillazzi

2015

Social Recognition in Invertebrates

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“…Examples include the chirps of giant pandas [1], the visual signals of some social insect species [2] and the sexual swellings of baboons [3]. Group-living social animals, such as many primates, receive such signals from group members with whom they have a history of previous interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiarity affects the assessment of female facial signals of fertility by free-ranging male rhesus macaques

et al. 2011

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Animals signal their reproductive status in a range of sensory modalities. Highly social animals, such as primates, have access not only to such signals, but also to prior experience of other group members. Whether this experience affects how animals interpret reproductive signals is unknown. Here, we explore whether familiarity with a specific female affects a male's ability to assess that female's reproductive signals. We used a preferential looking procedure to assess signal discrimination in free-ranging rhesus macaques, a species in which female facial luminance covaries with reproductive status. We collected images of female faces throughout the reproductive cycle, and using faecal hormone analysis to determine ovulation, categorized images as coming from a female's pre-fertile, ovulating, or post-fertile period. We printed colour-calibrated stimuli of these faces, reproducing stimuli perceptually the same in colour and luminance to the original appearance of females. These images were presented to males who were either unfamiliar or familiar with stimuli females. Overall, males distinguished ovulatory from pre-ovulatory faces. However, a significant proportion of males did so only among males familiar with stimuli females. These experiments demonstrate that familiarity may increase a receiver's ability to use a social partner's signals to discern their reproductive status.

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“…These data suggest that the degree of ovarian development is closely relatedto both body size and the function performed by the foundress. Other studies have shown that foundresses performing reproductive functions (i.e., alpha and solitary), must invest more in ovarian development (Turillazzi & Pardi, 1977;Dropkin & Gamboa, 1981;Fukuda et al, 2003;Tannure-Nascimento et al, 2008). Moreover, auxiliary foundresses performing activities with high energy costs, such as foraging for resources, are likely to undergo ovarian regression (Keeping, 2000;Cervo et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have shown that in pleometrotic foundations of IF polistine wasps, the colony reproductive function is aggressively disputed among potential females, and larger females have increased chances of subduing smaller competitors (Cant & Field, 2001;Tannure-Nascimento et al, 2008). Under these conditions, the reproductive organization is highly dependent on a dominance hierarchy, with larger females occupying higher positions in this hierarchy (Turillazzi & Pardi, 1977;Cervo et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In pleometrosis, the colony tasks are shared among the foundresses, although the reproductive function is performed by one female, who dominates the others (Röseler, 1991;Keeping, 1992;Prezoto et al, 2004). Hence, females with a greater capacity for dominance are more likely to perform the colony reproductive function (Cervo et al, 2008;Zanette & Field, 2009 (Fukuda et al, 2003;Tannure-Nascimento et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Morphological Differences between Reproductive and Non-reproductive Females in the Social Wasp Mischocyttarus consimilis Zikán (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Montagna¹,

Antonialli-Júnior²

2016

Sociobiology

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Phenotypic divergence plays an important role in establishment of the reproductive division of labor among castes in eusocial insects; however, little is known about this subject in social wasps. We tested the hypothesis that alpha foundressesin colonial foundations of the independent-founding polistine wasp Mischocyttarus consimilis Zikán show greater body size and ovarian development than auxiliary and solitary foundresses. The hypothesis was also tested that females produced in the late post-emergence stage (gynes) are larger than those produced at the beginning (workers) of the colony cycle of this species. Our results showed that the body size of alpha foundresses was significantly greater than that of auxiliary foundresses, but did not differ from that of solitary foundresses. In addition, the alpha had greater ovarian development than the auxiliary and solitary. We also demonstrated that gynes were significantly larger than workers. These results therefore suggest that the phenotype of females emerging in colonies of M. consimilis can vary with the progress of the colony cycle, and that body size and ovarian state are closely linked to the function performed by the foundress.

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The look of royalty: visual and odour signals of reproductive status in a paper wasp

Cited by 57 publications

References 43 publications

Visual Recognition in Social Wasps

Visual Recognition in Social Wasps

Familiarity affects the assessment of female facial signals of fertility by free-ranging male rhesus macaques

Morphological Differences between Reproductive and Non-reproductive Females in the Social Wasp Mischocyttarus consimilis Zikán (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

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