Polistes instabilis
Polistes instabilis | |
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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. instabilis
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Binomial name | |
Polistes instabilis Saussure, 1853
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Polistes instabilis, or unstable paper wasp is a type of
Colonies are usually initiated in the spring after the foundresses have emerged from the winter.
Description and identification
Polistes wasps, including Polistes instabilis, are large social wasps with yellow, brown and reddish markings. Body size ranges between 0.51–0.98 in (13–25 mm) with wings that are about 0.55 in (14 mm), which are folded longitudinally against the body.[1][7] Male Polistes are typically smaller than females, have a yellow face, and hold their antenna curled at the tips, while females hold their antenna straight at the tips and have more dark markings on their faces.[2]
Nests are constructed with paper substance made by chewing up plant
Taxonomy and phylogeny
The genus Polistes is one of the most widely distributed taxa of social wasps, and is known for morphological and behavioral similarities within the genus. The genus includes swarm-founding wasps and independent-founding wasps.[8] Polistes instabilis was described by Saussure in 1853, and is an independent-founding wasp.[9] This means that colonies are initiated by a single queen. Polistes instabilis shares many similarities with its Aphanilopterus relatives, especially Polistes versicolor. Both species are found to form facultative winter aggregations in high altitudes.[10] The most closely related species to Polistes instabilis is Polistes exclamans exclamans.[11]
Distribution and habitat
Polistes instabilis can be found in tropical and subtropical areas.[4] These include Central and South America, specifically Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.[1] Those found in Costa Rica tend to live in the lowlands, in dry forested areas. Once the rainy season ends in December, individuals migrate to higher elevation to wait out the winter.[12]
Colony cycle
Polistes instabilis colonies are usually initiated in the spring during the month of March. They are begun by one or few queens who have already mated called foundresses.
Behavior
Dominance hierarchy
Although female workers and reproductives are virtually identical in appearance and
Division of labor
Workers obtain information about colony needs from the environment,
Communication
Nest mates must communicate with each other in order to perform necessary tasks such as nest building and foraging. Some colonies have diffuse connections where each individual is just as likely to interact with any other. On the other hand, some colonies have very high connectedness between a subset of workers that send out communications to the rest of the colony. Polistes instabilis is an example of these types of colonies, where a few dominant workers seem to induce others to forage. This occurs by dominance interactions mentioned in previous sections.[16] Individuals will do gaster wagging, wing vibrations, or other aggressions in order to assert their dominance and tell subordinates to forage.[15] Therefore more dominant workers will tend to do tasks inside the nest.[16]
Reproductive suppression
The opportunity to lay eggs in a colony is determined by dominance ranking. The queen is the most dominant individual and has the only power to mate and lay eggs. Female workers remain in the nest and do not mate with males.[4] Ovary development in workers is suppressed by dominance interactions from the queen, as well as dominance interactions from the more dominant workers to the more subordinate workers. This results with more dominant workers having more developed ovaries, but still less developed than the queen’s.[15] If the queen dies or is removed, then the most dominant worker will take her place as the new reproductive.[4]
Nest activity
Nest activity is episodic and occurs in bursts rather than continuous activity throughout the day. Polistes instabilis spends roughly half of the daylight hours inactive and immobile. Periods of inactivity are broken when individuals initiate actions such as arriving, leaving, walking, antennating, gaster wagging, or fanning. These actions cause other workers to also begin working. 80% of activity is initiated by arriving or walking. Arriving triggers activity because when wasps arrive to the nest they bring materials to transfer to other workers. Walking is a first step taken in assessing needs of the colony, which can then be communicated to others. Queens do not differ from other workers in the initiation of active periods.[3]
Interaction with other species
Diet
Polistes instabilis feeds on caterpillars as well as nectar. When hunting caterpillars, the workers chew up the caterpillars extensively before returning to the nest. They distribute the ingested liquid to larvae, and caterpillar remains to other workers.
Nest defense
When a Polistes instabilis nest is attacked, the wasps defend their nests by responding in two different ways: First they perform a threat response by wagging their gaster and vibrating their wings, and second, some wasps may attack by leaving the nest and physically touching the attacker. There seems to be no relationship between the amount of investment the wasps have put into their nest and the defense response. This suggests that there are a fixed number of wasps that are semi specialized for nest defense, and such defensive tasks may be assigned in the same way as other tasks such as foraging.[13]
Mutualism
Polistes instabilis seem to have a mutualistic relationship with Croton suberosus, a neotropical shrub. The shrub produces nectar as a reward to pollinators. In return for pollinating, workers get to feed on the nectar. In addition, workers defend the shrub against
References
- ^ a b c d "Polistes Instabilis". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ^ a b c d e "Polistes sp". Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
- ^ a b c d e Jha, Shalene (2006). "The queen is not a pacemaker in the small-colony wasps Polistes instabilis and P. dominulus". Animal Behavior.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f Hughes, Colin R.; Joan E. Strassman (1988). "Age Is More Important than Size in Determining Dominance among Workers in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp, Polistes instabilis". BRILL.
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(help) - ^ a b c O'Donnell, Sean (1998). "Effects of Experimental Forager Removals on Division of Labour in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp Polistes instabilis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)". BRILL.
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(help) - ^ a b Dyer, Lee A. (1997). "Effectiveness of caterpillar defenses against three species of invertebrate predators". Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera.
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(help) - ^ a b "Genus Polistes". Iowa State University Entomology. 2004. Retrieved 2014-09-19.
- ^ Carpenter, James (1996). "Phylogeny and biogeography of Polistes". Natural History and Evolution of Paper-Wasps. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2014-09-25.
- ^ "Discover Life". The Polistes Foundation. 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-25.
- ^ Gobbi, Nivar, Fernando B. Noll, and Marcelo A. H. Penna. "‘Winter’ Aggregations, Colony Cycle, and Seasonal Phenotypic Change in the Paper Wasp Polistes versicolor in Subtropical Brazil." Naturwissenschaften 93.10 (2006): 487-94. Web.
- ^ Pickett, Kurt M. (2006). "Systematics of Polistes (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), with a phylogenetic consideration of Hamilton's haplodiploidy hypothesis". Annales Zoologici Fennici.
- ^ a b Mulkey, Stephen S. (1999). "Dry Season Migration by Costa Rican Lowland Paper Wasps to High Elevation Cold Dormancy Sites". Biotropica.
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(help) - ^ a b Seal, Jon N. (2002). "Does Polistes instabilis de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Investment Predict Nest Defense?". Allen Press.
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(help) - ^ Molina, Y.; S. O'Donnell (2008). "Worker reproductive competition affects division of labor in primitively social paper wasp (Polistes instabilis)". Insectes Sociaux.
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(help) - ^ a b c Molina, Yamile; Sean O'Donnell (2006). "Mushroom Body Volume is Related to Social Aggression and Ovary Development in the Paper Wasp Polistes instabilis". Brain, Behavior and Evolution.
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(help) - ^ a b O'Donnell, Sean; S.J. Bulova (2007). "Worker connectivity: a review of the design of worker communication systems and their effects on task performance of insect societies". Insectes Sociaux.
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(help) - ^ Narbona, Eduardo; Rodolfo Dirzo (2010). "A Reassessment of the Function of Floral Nectar in Croton suberosus (Euphorbiaceae): A Reward for Plant Defenders and Pollinators". American Journal of Botany.
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