Polistes gallicus
Polistes gallicus | |
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Polistes gallicus male | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Vespidae |
Subfamily: | Polistinae |
Tribe: | Polistini
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Genus: | Polistes |
Species: | P. gallicus
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Binomial name | |
Polistes gallicus Linnaeus, 1761
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Distribution of P. gallicus in yellow | |
Synonyms | |
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Polistes gallicus is a species of
Description and identification
P. gallicus, like other members of the subgenus Polistes (Polistes), has recognizable, bright yellow and black markings. They have smaller bodies than many of its allies that overlap in range, and their bodies are largely hairless.[3] The species may be separated from allies through the following traits.
Females are identified by having 12 antennal segments and 6 abdominal segments. The antennae are orange and paler on the ventral surface than in many allies and have yellow-marked scapes. The
Males are identified by having 13 antennal segments and 7 abdominal segments. The head is roughly triangular as viewed from the front with a curved clypeus. The apical half of the antennae is entirely orange-yellow, and the final segment is slightly under twice as long as wide. The pronotum has a yellow band that widens toward the sides as well as short, straight hairs. The mesosternum is largely yellow, more so than in some allies. Both the mesoscutum and scutellum typically have distinct spots. The abdomen has the final sternite entirely black.[4]
Taxonomy and phylogeny
P. gallicus is a member of the family Vespidae, further classified under the Polistinae (the second-largest of the subfamilies), which consists of various social wasps. Within the larger subfamily Polistnae, Polistes species are categorized by their independent founding behavior, distinguishing them from swarm-founding species.[5] Furthermore, P. gallicus is one of about 200 species of wasps in the genus Polistes.[6]
P. gallicus is one of 27 members of the subgenus Polistes (Polistes), which are typically very similar black-and-yellow species. This similarity has resulted in taxonomic complications in older literature. For instance, many references prior to 1985 misapplied the name to the European paper wasp,
Distribution and habitat
The range of P. gallicus extends across much of Europe, where it is a common species. It can be found from northern Italy and southern Switzerland south into northwest Africa and east to Croatia and Corfu.[4] The species inhabits a variety of climates and habitats throughout this range, although it more frequently nests in warm and dry regions, where its nests are built hanging in the open with the cells towards the ground. In cooler regions north of the Alps, its nests are often built in more protective enclosures such as in pipes or metal scraps.[8][2]
P. gallicus was first sighted in North America in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1980[9] and has remained established in Massachusetts ever since.[10] Also reported to be in Chile.[11]
Colony cycle
Fertile foundress wasps come out of
This first brood of each season emerges around May to early June and is exclusively female workers that tend to the nest as subordinates to the foundress. They help maintain the nest, tend to the brood by hunting, and defend the nest if it's threatened. The foundress can now focus her time on laying eggs. Beginning with the second brood, the larvae are able to be better fed by the early workers and emerge as bigger adults. The nest continues to grow into the summer months as more cells are needed for the brood. This summer brood takes a single month to mature. The size of the nest can reach as many as 500 to over 1000 cells in optimum conditions such as sheltered, warmer locations, though they are still smaller than in allied species of Polistes. Such nests may have hundreds of workers.[2]
By around June to July, some of the eggs laid by the foundress are willingly unfertilized so, instead of developing into female workers will more quickly develop into males. The females that emerge from around July to August, instead of contributing to the nest, instead store fat and develop their ovaries to become future foundresses. With the next generation of foundresses developing, the nest tends to decline in activity. When the original foundress dies, some workers may begin laying unfertilized eggs which, if they manage to develop, will be males.
The males that are produced congregate in unisexual clusters not far from the nest until November. They then occasionally mate with the future foundresses from other nests. As winter approaches, the workers and then the males die out, leaving only the newly fertilized foundresses to hibernate overwinter, in various shelters, until the following spring to begin a new colony cycle. This can be as many as two dozen, or more, foundresses.
Behavior
Diet
The wasp is omnivorous, feeding on fruits, flower's nectar, insects, snails, or larger animals' corpses. It feeds its brood after visiting numerous flowers, collecting nectar in addition to feeding them. Due to its dimensions, this species is suspected to transfer pollen to the stigma from its mostly hairless bodies, resulting in few to no pollen grains remaining on the body after foraging.[3]
Dominance hierarchy
Reproductive suppression
After a hierarchy is established, the dominant wasp remains the sole reproducer in the colony due to the inhibition of endocrine activity within the subordinate wasps. Various factors contribute to the possibility of inhibition, which might also lead to differences in endocrine activity. If subordinates happen to lay eggs after the hierarchy is formed, the dominant foundress will eat the eggs to ensure all laid eggs are of her own genes.[13]
Kin recognition and conflict
P. gallicus recognize their kin through Van der Vecht (VVS) organ secretions, which include a mixture of
Colonies of P. gallicus typically have one foundress that produces offspring, though all females, including workers, are capable of producing male offspring. This creates a trade-off in terms of reproductive activity between the foundress and her workers. The relatedness of a foundress to her son is 1/2 as compared to a worker to her brother of 1/4. In the case of a foundress that only mated once, a worker's relatedness to a fellow worker's male offspring is 3/8. This closer relatedness to the workers means that workers may favor handling male production instead of the foundress. However, in the case of a foundress that mated more than once, the workers relatedness to a male produced by the foundress instead will be less than that of fellow workers.[15] Because workers favor situations where the male brood are more closely related to them,[15] workers may attempt to prevent other workers from laying eggs if the foundress has mated more than once.[16]
As different colonies may have differences in the relatedness of workers, conflict over sex ratio arises. Fisher's theory of equal investment supports that a colony with a 50:50 sex ratio is the most beneficial due to both males and females having the same expected reproductive success.[17] In colonies with an active foundress, workers may not produce male offspring of their own if it means a healthier colony. Additionally, a foundress may eat the eggs laid by workers to maintain balance if she was unable to prevent workers from laying eggs in the first place. The reverse is expected to occur as well. Indirect evidence also supports the occurrence matricide within colonies, and queen death is noted to be high in P. gallicus.[15]
Interaction with other species
Predators
Ants are a major threat to colonies prior to the emergence of the first workers. Members of the genera Tapinoma, Pheidole, and Tetramorium are known to be able to decimate a young nest. These ants feed on both larvae and pupae. Advanced predation may result in a foundress having to begin a new nest from scratch or otherwise usurp the nest of another foundress. If there are already workers at the time, the colony swarms to a nearby point to being a new nest or, if there are many workers, the colony may split up to form several smaller nests. However, only the fertile foundress will produce female offspring to complete the colony cycle, and secondary nests will only produce male offspring. If one of the secondary nests is lost, such as to predation, its workers will instead rejoin a sister colony instead of trying to start a colony from scratch for a third time.[citation needed]
Parasites
Defense
Polistes species are known to use stings and venom as a means of colony defense. However, this venom seems to be costly to produce as they only release it after the sting in certain situations. Dangerous stimuli must first be perceived before they go out of their way, leaving a nest unattended, to attack.[19] In some situations, P. gallicus is known to exhibit aggressive behavior to wasps of a foreign colony.[14] While venom from a basic standpoint is used by solitary species to capture prey, it has served a greater purpose of defense in social colonies against colony vertebrate and invertebrate offenders.[19]
When it comes to alarm systems, Polistes species can communicate with others through vibrational and visual signals. It might actually be beneficial for a smaller colony of wasps to switch from alarm pheromones, common with these wasps, to these alternative signals when the colony grows in size. Alarm pheromones mixed with the composition of the venom can also be released. However, if this release occurs following the act of ejecting venom by the signaling wasps or if it is due to the actual release of the venom during the sting has yet to be determined .[19]
Human importance
Knowing venom chemistry from these species of wasps can lead to human advantages for pharmaceuticals. The chemical breakdown of venom allows for synthesis in immunology therapy due to the creation of more reliable and effective treatments for people with allergies. Studies which analyzed the way venom interacts with victims provided a mechanism for drugs to permeate cell membranes. Further studies on wasps could provide a mechanism to control overpopulation through the creation of artificial sex attractants.[19]
Allergic reaction-induced IgE-mediated anaphylaxis is commonly a result of hymenopteran stings. The composition of venom from a sting can even affect the types of treatment a patient should be given. Differences have been found between the composition of American and European Polistes venoms. Response to different epitope spectrums depends on the type of Polistes that did the stinging. P. gallicus venom was found to be a combination of four major allergens: Ag5 (antigen 5), hyaluronidase, phospholipase, and protease. This discovery has led to the addition of these allergens into a standard Polistes mix containing venom from North American species to improve diagnosis and therapy for European patients with Polistes allergies.[20]
References
- ^ PMID 15012393. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ . Retrieved 20 September 2014.
- ^ S2CID 917261.
- ^ PMID 29134040.
- PMID 15070433.
- JSTOR 23736760.
- PMID 24843256.
- ^ "Polistes gallicus (Linnaeus, 1767)." European Environment Agency, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/species/216123>
- ISSN 0033-2615.
- ^ "The Non-Native Paper Wasp That Massachusetts Residents Sometimes Confuse With Yellow Jackets". Merrimack Pest Control. 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
- Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International Invasive Species Compendium. 2019-11-25. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-9906-7.
- ^ S2CID 30682118.
- ^ PMID 17644826.
- ^ PMID 14635864. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
- S2CID 84742198.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-1416-5.
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- ^ a b c d Turillazzi, Stefano (December 2006). "Polistes venom: a multifunctional secretion" (PDF). Annales Zoologici Fennici. 43 (5–6): 488–499. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
- PMID 14572904.