Agelaia multipicta
Agelaia multipicta | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Vespidae |
Subfamily: | Polistinae |
Tribe: | Epiponini |
Genus: | Agelaia |
Species: | A. multipicta
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Binomial name | |
Agelaia multipicta (Haliday), 1836)
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Synonyms[1] | |
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Agelaia multipicta is a swarm-founding, highly
Description
James Carpenter's
The queen and worker castes differ significantly in appearance and ovarian development, reflecting their distinct biological functions. The non-reproductive workers have reduced ovaries and brown coloration of the middle tibia and face between the antennal insertions. Queens have a larger and hairier petiole and gaster and yellow mid tibia and face.[4]
Distribution
A. multipicta is found in
A. multipicta is the most abundant wasp species in
Nest structure
Like other wasps in the Epiponini tribe, A. multipicta builds an exposed, single-comb nest, attached with a broad pedicel to its substrate.[8] A. multipicta's nests are exposed in a sense that they are not surrounded by an envelope. However, the nest usually occurs in spaces that are naturally enclosed, such as hollow trees and cavities in the ground. These natural structures may be filling the protective role usually fulfilled by an envelope. The combs can be irregular, not always parallel, and the cells in some findings are 3.0 mm wide and 9.0 mm deep. The variety of nest architecture and location observed in A. multipicta is thought to reflect their adaptability to the variations in cavity-like spaces present in the natural environment.[3]
Behavior
Defense
Behavior of A. multipicta seems to be physically as opposed to chemically influenced. Individuals of A. multipicta display
Carrion feeding
Foragers from different colonies have been observed at the same feeding site, suggesting that colony foraging territories overlap.
It is thought that Polistinae wasps are unable to recruit nest mates to carrion and that there is no communication about food resources in the nest. This idea was supported in an experiment in Brazil where foragers were marked upon arriving at an experimental carrion site. The number of incoming individuals were counted respective to time. There was no notable increase of new wasps going to carrion over time. This included instances of individual wasps returning to the carrion multiple times. This suggests that there is not a lack of opportunity to communicate to nest-mates, but perhaps a lack of ability.[9]
There are several possible explanations for why recruitment to food sources may not occur in this species, but none have been experimentally verified. One possibility is that carrion is relatively rare as a food source for A. multipicta and it was not advantageous enough to drive the development of food sharing communication. A second possibility is that colonies may be unable to effectively compete against with other colony groups for carrion resources, so increasing recruitment would waste energy. A third possibility is that the lack of ability to store carrion reduces the benefit of collecting it in large quantities. If other food sources, such as nectar, were collected and stored, this argument may be supported.[9]
Queens of A. multipicta are highly related, a condition called oligogyny. Although it has not been directly studied for this species, a similar case of high queen relatedness in a multi-queen swarming species, Polybia emaciata, supports the cyclical oligogyny hypothesis. This hypothesis entails that the number of queens declines as colonies age, making the future queens more related to each other. Cyclical oligogyny may be influencing the relatedness of A. multipicta queens, but this requires species specific scientific investigation.[11]
Predation
Despite their ability to sting, wasp nests in the
Roles in decomposition
A. multipicta and other wasps play an important role in the
References
- ^ James M. Carpenter. "Tentative Checklist of the Polistine Tribe Epiponini". IUNH. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- ^ a b White, Stefanie; Starr, Christopher (2013). "Comings and goings of Agelaia multipicta (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in Trinidad, West Indies" (PDF). Living World, J. Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club.
- ^ a b c Giannotti, Edilberto (1998). "On the Nest of Agelaia multipicta (Haliday, 1836) and Description of the Matrue Larva (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)". Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, Sao Paulo. 42: 97–99.
- ^ .
- ^ S2CID 27101675.
- ^ hdl:2246/2775.
- hdl:11449/72875.
- ^ S2CID 83819136.
- ^ a b c d e Jeanne, Robert (Jul 1995). "Foraging in Social Wasps: Agelaia Lacks Recruitment to Food (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society.
- PMID 17714272.
- PMID 19426048.
- ^ Raw, Anthony (1992). "Avian predation on individual neotropical social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) outside their nests". Ornitologia Neotropical. 8: 89–92.