Nepotistic colony fission in dense colony aggregations of an Australian paper wasp.

ABSTRACT: Social insects are highly diverse in their social structures, aside from the consistent presence of reproductive castes. Among social insects, the Australian paper wasp Ropalidia plebeiana constructs extremely dense colony aggregations consisting of hundreds of colonies within a few square meters; however, little is known about the aggregation structures. We genetically analyzed the colony and population structure of R. plebeiana, and concomitant variations in colony sex ratios. In spring, the foundress (candidate queen) group started their colonies on a single old comb from the previous season, subsequently dividing these old combs via relatedness-based comb-cutting. Female philopatry, a prerequisite condition of Local Resource Competition (LRC), was confirmed. The colony sex ratio of rep

SUBMITTER: Tsuchida K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9329314 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature