Studying temporal and spatial changes of aggregations of digger wasps through nesting seasons is interesting because of its link to social evolution via a semi-social pathway, but information about this topic is scarce. An aggregation of Cerceris arenaria Latreille was studied during 1997-1999 and for a short period in 2001. The colony grew in area and number of nests through the first three seasons, but the aggregation reduced in 2001, and this decrease was confirmed by a count of nests made in 2003 and 2005. The positions of the nest entrances remained almost constant over the years, at least in high-nest-density areas, because of the repeated use of the same burrows from which they emerged. This fact permits the population to exploit for many years a restricted area and could act as a nest-density-regulation method for fossorial species that rarely dig new nests, preventing an excessive nest density. The newly emerged females did not dig new nests, showed a high philopatry in the choice of their first nest, and preferred to look for other nests to occupy close to the ones recently abandoned (mainly for an undergone usurpation by a conspecific female). Philopatry, along with lack of new nest digging and position-dependent nest choice, is probably an important factor maintaining spatial stability of the aggregation through the years and could represent a first step in the evolution of a higher sociality in apoid burrowing Hymenoptera.
Philopatry, nest choice and aggregation temporal-spatial change in the digger wasp Cerceris arenaria (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) / C. Polidori, M. Casiraghi, M. Di Lorenzo, B. Valarani, F. Andrietti. - In: JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY. - ISSN 0289-0771. - 24:2(2006), pp. 155-163.
Philopatry, nest choice and aggregation temporal-spatial change in the digger wasp Cerceris arenaria (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)
C. Polidori;M. Di Lorenzo;F. Andrietti
2006
Abstract
Studying temporal and spatial changes of aggregations of digger wasps through nesting seasons is interesting because of its link to social evolution via a semi-social pathway, but information about this topic is scarce. An aggregation of Cerceris arenaria Latreille was studied during 1997-1999 and for a short period in 2001. The colony grew in area and number of nests through the first three seasons, but the aggregation reduced in 2001, and this decrease was confirmed by a count of nests made in 2003 and 2005. The positions of the nest entrances remained almost constant over the years, at least in high-nest-density areas, because of the repeated use of the same burrows from which they emerged. This fact permits the population to exploit for many years a restricted area and could act as a nest-density-regulation method for fossorial species that rarely dig new nests, preventing an excessive nest density. The newly emerged females did not dig new nests, showed a high philopatry in the choice of their first nest, and preferred to look for other nests to occupy close to the ones recently abandoned (mainly for an undergone usurpation by a conspecific female). Philopatry, along with lack of new nest digging and position-dependent nest choice, is probably an important factor maintaining spatial stability of the aggregation through the years and could represent a first step in the evolution of a higher sociality in apoid burrowing Hymenoptera.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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