| Title: | Dominance behaviour and regulation of foraging in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata (Lep.) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) |
| Author(s): | Bruyndonckx N; Kardile SP; Gadagkar R; |
| Address: | "Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India. Nadia.Bruyndonckx@unil.ch" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.beproc.2005.11.013 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0376-6357 (Print) 0376-6357 (Linking) |
| 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" |
| Keywords: | Agonistic Behavior Animals *Appetitive Behavior *Dominance-Subordination Female India Motivation Satiety Response *Social Behavior *Wasps; |
| Notes: | "MedlineBruyndonckx, Nadia Kardile, Sujata P Gadagkar, Raghavendra eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Netherlands 2006/01/13 Behav Processes. 2006 Mar; 72(1):100-3. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2005.11.013. Epub 2006 Jan 6" |
