Color is necessary for face discrimination in the Northern paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus.

ABSTRACT: Visual individual recognition requires animals to distinguish among conspecifics based on appearance. Though visual individual recognition has been reported in a range of taxa including primates, birds, and insects, the features that animals require to discriminate between individuals are not well understood. Northern paper wasp females, Polistes fuscatus, possess individually distinctive color patterns on their faces, which mediate individual recognition. However, it is currently unclear what role color plays in the facial recognition system of this species. Thus, we sought to test two possible roles of color in wasp facial recognition. On one hand, color may be important simply because it creates a pattern. If this is the case, then wasps should perform similarly when discriminating colo

SUBMITTER: Jernigan CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9974887 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature