Colony founding in the primitively eusocial wasp, Ropalidia marginata (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Shakarad, Mallikarjun and Gadagkar, Raghavendra (1995) Colony founding in the primitively eusocial wasp, Ropalidia marginata (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). In: Ecological Entomology, 20 . pp. 273-282.

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Abstract

1. In a 16-month study in Bangalore, India, about 35% of the newly founded colonies of Ropalidia marginata were single foundress colonies and the remainder were multiple foundress colonies with two to twenty-two individuals. 2. Larger colonies did not have a significantly higher per capita productivity, did not produce significantly heavier progeny and did not produce them significantly faster than smaller colonies did. 3. Predation by the hornet Vespa tropica appeared to be independent of group size. 4. Single foundress colonies failed more often but not often enough to make them have a lower average per capita productivity, compared to multiple foundress colonies. 5. Some of the advantages of multiple foundress associations came from the greater predictability of their attaining the mean per capita productivity, the relatively lower rates of usurpation experienced by them compared to single foundress colonies, and the opportunities provided by queen turnovers for workers to become replacement queens and gain direct individual fitness.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Ecological Entomology
Publisher:	Blackwell Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Blackwell.
Keywords:	Social wasp;Ropalidia marginata;Multiple foundress associations;Colony founding;Eusociality
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2006
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:32
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/8726

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