How is colony activity regulated in Ropalidia marginata?

Premnath, S and Sinha, A and Gadagkar, R (1996) How is colony activity regulated in Ropalidia marginata? [Book Chapter]

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Abstract

Primitively eusocial insects often live in colonies consisting of several female adults. Of these, only one is usually the queen or egg layer, and the rest function as sterile, subordinate workers. In some well-studied species, the queen is known to be the most active individual, and is thus thought to regulate colony activity by acting as a central pacemaker. However, studies of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata reveal a rather different picture. The queen, inspite of being the sole egg layer, shows significantly fewer dominance behaviours, and unloads food from returning foragers significantly less often as compared to an average worker. Removal of the queen does not lead to any significant difference in the levels of foraging and brood care. Indeed, within minutes of removal of the queen, one of the workers becomes highly aggressive for sometime and theri takes over as the next queen. This individual is referred to as a "potential queen". The activity of workers, especially foraging, appears to be regulated by dominance shown to them, not so much by the queen, but by a group of workers, usually including the 'potential queen'.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Publisher:	New Age International Limited
Additional Information:	copyright to this article belongs to NEW AGE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, PUBLISHERS
Keywords:	Social wasp, Ropalidia marginata, Kin recognition, Colony activity
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	18 Mar 2021 06:26
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 06:26
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/67914

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