Queen Succession in the Indian Paper Wasp Ropalidia marginata: on the trail of the potential queen

Gadagkar, R and Sharma, N and Pinter Wollmann, N (2022) Queen Succession in the Indian Paper Wasp Ropalidia marginata: on the trail of the potential queen. In: Journal of Biosciences, 47 . pp. 1-18.

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Abstract

Ropalidia marginata is a common primitively eusocial wasp in peninsular India. Their colonies contain a single egg-laying queen and several non-egg-laying workers. Queens and workers are morphologically indistinguishable, and individuals can change from one role to the other. Unlike most primitively eusocial species, queens of R. marginata are docile, non-aggressive and non-interactive. Nevertheless, the queens maintain a complete reproductive monopoly mediated by non-volatile pheromones. Upon the death or removal of the queen, one worker becomes temporarily hyper-aggressive and becomes the next queen within about a week; we refer to her as the ‘potential queen’. Because only one individual becomes hyper-aggressive and reveals herself as the potential queen, and the other wasps never challenge her, we have been much interested in identifying the potential queen in the presence of the queen. However, we have failed to do so until recently. Here, we recount the four decades of search for the potential queen, ending with the recent resolution that emerged from applying the novel technique of multilayer network analysis. Identifying the potential queen in the presence of the previous queen is now possible by integrating behavioural information from multiple social situations to form a holistic view of the social structure of the wasps.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Biosciences
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Springer
Keywords:	Multilayer network analysis, paper wasp, potential queen, Ropalidia marginata, queen succession
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2022 05:54
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2022 05:54
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/71609

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