Antecedents of behavioural and reproductive dominance in pairs of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata

Bang, Alok (2019) Antecedents of behavioural and reproductive dominance in pairs of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata. In: BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES, 158 . pp. 1-3.

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Abstract

What factors predispose some individuals to become reproductively dominant in a group where every member can reproduce? Antecedents of reproductive dominance have often been investigated in primitively eusocial species where reproductive skew exists despite adult reproductive potential displayed by every group-member, but such studies have rarely focused on small, incipient colonies. Here, I investigated antecedents of behavioural and reproductive dominance in pairs of the Indian paper wasp Ropalidia marginata. Common antecedents of behavioural dominance such as body size and age were inoperative in pairs of R. marginata. Moreover, age and behavioural dominance, but not body size, influenced reproductive dominance in pairs. These findings are not only different from other primitively eusocial insects, but also different from the colonies of R. marginata. It is likely that antecedents of reproductive dominance are different not only in different species, but also change with group size within a species, such that the role of behavioural dominance to achieve reproductive monopoly remains more effective in small groups such as pairs, and becomes less effective as the group size increases. These results require further investigations into the effect of group size on individual behaviour in group-living animals.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES
Publisher:	ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Keywords:	Aggression; Agonism; Eusociality; Social behaviour; Sociobiology
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2019 08:59
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2019 08:59
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/61724

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