scholarly journals Clypeal patterning in the paper wasp Polistes dominulus: no evidence of adaptive value in the wild

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Green ◽  
Ellouise Leadbeater ◽  
Jonathan M. Carruthers ◽  
Neil S. Rosser ◽  
Eric R. Lucas ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Brown ◽  
A. Payne ◽  
K. K. Graham ◽  
P. T. Starks


2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Dapporto ◽  
Stefano Turillazzi ◽  
Elisabetta Palagi


PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne A. Madden ◽  
Sean D. Boyden ◽  
Jonathan-Andrew N. Soriano ◽  
Tyler B. Corey ◽  
Jonathan W. Leff ◽  
...  

Grape sour (bunch) rot is a polymicrobial disease of vineyards that causes millions of dollars in lost revenue per year due to decreased quality of grapes and resultant wine. The disease is associated with damaged berries infected with a community of acetic acid bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous fungi that results in rotting berries with high amounts of undesirable volatile acidity. Many insect species cause the initial grape berry damage that can lead to this disease, but most studies have focused on the role of fruit flies in facilitating symptoms and vectoring the microorganisms of this disease complex. Like fruit flies, social wasps are abundant in vineyards where they feed on ripe berries and cause significant damage, while also dispersing yeasts involved in wine fermentation. Despite this, their possible role in disease facilitation and dispersal of grape rots has not been explored. We tested the hypothesis that the paper wasp Polistes dominulus could facilitate grape sour rot in the absence of other insect vectors. Using marker gene sequencing we characterized the bacterial and fungal community of wild-caught adults. We used a sterilized foraging arena to determine if these wasps transfer viable microorganisms when foraging. We then tested if wasps harboring their native microbial community, or those inoculated with sour rot, had an effect on grape sour rot incidence and severity using a laboratory foraging arena. We found that all wasps harbor some portion of the sour rot microbial community and that they have the ability to transfer viable microorganisms when foraging. Foraging by inoculated and uninoculated wasps led to an increase in berry rot disease symptom severity and incidence. Our results indicate that paper wasps can facilitate sour rot diseases in the absence of other vectors and that the mechanism of this facilitation may include both increasing host susceptibility and transmitting these microbial communities to the grapes. Social wasps are understudied but relevant players in the sour rot ecology of vineyards.



2005 ◽  
Vol 272 (1570) ◽  
pp. 1339-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Liebig ◽  
Thibaud Monnin ◽  
Stefano Turillazzi

Assessing a conspecific's potential is often crucial to increase one's fitness, e.g. in female choice, contests with rivals or reproductive conflicts in animal societies. In the latter, helpers benefit from accurately assessing the fertility of the breeder as an indication of inclusive fitness. There is evidence that this can be achieved using chemical correlates of reproductive activity. Here, we show that queen quality can be assessed by directly monitoring her reproductive output. In the paper wasp Polistes dominulus , we mimicked a decrease in queen fertility by regularly removing brood. This triggered ovarian development and egg-laying by many workers, which strongly suggests that brood abundance is a reliable cue of queen quality. Brood abundance can be monitored when workers perform regular brood care in small size societies where each brood element is kept in a separate cell. Our results also show that although the queen was not manipulated, and thus remained healthy and fully fertile, she did not control worker egg-laying. Nevertheless, when workers laid eggs, the queen secured a near reproductive monopoly by selectively destroying these eggs, a mechanism known as ‘queen policing’. By contrast, workers destroyed comparatively few queen-laid eggs, but did destroy each other's eggs.



2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 1363-1365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Dapporto ◽  
Claudia Bruschini ◽  
Rita Cervo ◽  
Francesca R. Dani ◽  
Duncan E Jackson ◽  
...  


Parasitology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 135 (6) ◽  
pp. 705-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. VANNINI ◽  
A. CARAPELLI ◽  
F. FRATI ◽  
L. BEANI

SUMMARYHost discrimination by immature host-seeking endoparasites is a complex and somewhat unexplored topic. In the case of multiple infections, conflicts among conspecifics may occur to monopolize space and resources in the same host. Two or more 1st instar larvae ofXenos vesparum(Strepsiptera, Stylopidae) may enter into aPolistes dominulus(Hymenoptera, Vespidae) larva and develop together until the adult stage of both parasite and host. We carried out a screening of mitochondrial haplotypes inX. vesparumindividuals extracted from superparasitized wasps taken in 5 naturally infected nests from different areas of Tuscany (Italy), to assess whether non-sibling parasites may infect the same colony and host. In total, we obtained 12 different haplotypes out of 122 genotyped individuals of both sexes: 17 of 34 superparasitized wasps hosted parasites that originated from females differing in their haplotypes. To date, this is the first described case of superparasitism with non-sibling host-seeking larvae infecting a single individual hymenopteran host. In addition, at least in heavily infected colonies, there is evidence of a male-biased sex-ratio and synchronous development of the parasites, regardless of their haplotypes. Finally, the distribution of haplotypes per nest is consistent with either phoretic infection or larvipositing on nests by means of superparasitized wasps.



Ethology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 118 (8) ◽  
pp. 766-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Green ◽  
Charles Rose ◽  
Jeremy Field


2009 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Weiner ◽  
C. T. Upton ◽  
K. Noble ◽  
W. A. Woods ◽  
P. T. Starks




Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document