cues have it; nest-based, cue-mediated recruitment to carbohydrate resources in a swarm-founding social wasp

This study explores whether or not foragers of the Neotropical swarm-founding wasp Polybia occidentalis use nest-based recruitment to direct colony mates to carbohydrate resources. Recruitment allows social insect colonies to rapidly exploit ephemeral resources, an ability especially advantageous to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Die Naturwissenschaften 2010-11, Vol.97 (11), p.1017-1022
Main Authors: Schueller, Teresa I, Nordheim, Erik V, Taylor, Benjamin J, Jeanne, Robert L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Feed
Animals
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Carbohydrates
Circadian Rhythm
Colonies
Communication
Conspecifics
Costa Rica
Cues
Dietary Carbohydrates
Environment
Feeding Behavior
Foraging behavior
Hymenoptera
Life Sciences
Nectar
Nesting Behavior
Nests
Odorants
Pheromones - physiology
Polybia occidentalis
Predatory Behavior
Prey
Recruitment
Scents
Short Communication
Signals
Social Behavior
Sucrose
Sucrose - metabolism
Wasps - physiology
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Summary:This study explores whether or not foragers of the Neotropical swarm-founding wasp Polybia occidentalis use nest-based recruitment to direct colony mates to carbohydrate resources. Recruitment allows social insect colonies to rapidly exploit ephemeral resources, an ability especially advantageous to species such as P. occidentalis, which store nectar and prey in their nests. Although recruitment is often defined as being strictly signal mediated, it can also occur via cue-mediated information transfer. Previous studies indicated that P. occidentalis employs local enhancement, a type of cue-mediated recruitment in which the presence of conspecifics at a site attracts foragers. This recruitment is resource-based, and as such, is a blunt recruitment tool, which does not exclude non-colony mates. We therefore investigated whether P. occidentalis also employs a form of nest-based recruitment. A scented sucrose solution was applied directly to the nest. This mimicked a scented carbohydrate resource brought back by employed foragers, but, as foragers were not allowed to return to the nest with the resource, there was no possibility for on-nest recruitment behavior. Foragers were offered two dishes—one containing the test scent and the other an alternate scent. Foragers chose the test scent more often, signifying that its presence in the nest induces naïve foragers to search for it off-nest. P. occidentalis, therefore, employs a form of nest-based recruitment to carbohydrate resources that is mediated by a cue, the presence of a scented resource in the nest.
ISSN:0028-1042
1432-1904
DOI:10.1007/s00114-010-0712-9