Dominance behaviour and regulation of foraging in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata (Lep.) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Bruyndonckx, Nadia and Kardile, Sujata P and Gadagkar, Raghavendra (2006) Dominance behaviour and regulation of foraging in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata (Lep.) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). In: Behavioural Processes, 72 (1). pp. 100-103.

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Abstract

Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial, polistine wasp widely distributed in peninsular India. In spite of its primitively eusocial status,queens of R. marginata are surprisingly docile and behaviourally non-dominant (except during the first week or so of their careers as queens). Yet they successfully maintain reproductive monopoly throughout their careers, probably through the use of pheromones.Workers exhibit dominance–subordinate interactions but these behaviours are not involved in regulating reproductive competition among the workers because workers with high dominance ranks are not necessarily the ones who replace lost queens.We have speculated and provided correlational evidence before that dominance-subordinate interactions among the workers have been co-opted in this species for the workers to regulate each other’s foraging. Here, we provide experimental evidence in support of the speculation, by reducing demand for food and showing that this results in a significant decrease in the frequency of dominance-subordinate interactions among the workers.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Behavioural Processes
Publisher:	Elsevier
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier.
Keywords:	Dominance behaviour;Primitively eusocial wasp;Regulation of foraging;Ropalidia marginata
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2006
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:33
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/9143

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