Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction of a scented carbohydrate resource into the nest increases departure rate in Polybia occidentalis

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Insectes Sociaux Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Social wasps do not possess a sophisticated, signal-based mechanism for recruiting foragers to food resources. Instead, in some species naïve potential foragers use cues, specifically the scent of a resource obtained from successful foragers, to help locate the resource in the field. Prior studies have focused on the effectiveness of this mechanism on increasing the number of foragers at an artificial resource in the field; the increase is typically modest. Here, we focus on the activity at the nest in Polybia occidentalis, a tropical social wasp, and quantify the magnitude of the effect an influx of a known amount of scented carbohydrate solution added directly to the nest has on activating foragers to leave the nest in search of the resource. Under our experimental conditions, adding a scented 2.0 M sucrose solution to the nest doubled the average rate of departure. No increase occurred when the same amount of water was added as a control. This mass activation of foragers may give colonies of this species a competitive edge by enhancing their ability to rapidly exploit new resources.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akaike H. 1974. A new look at statistical model identification. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 19: 716-723.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beekman M. 2005. How long will honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) be stimulated by scent to revisit past-profitable forage sites? J. Comp. Physiol. A 191: 1115-1120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesmeijer J.C. and Tóth E. 1998. Individual foraging, activity level and longevity in the stingless bee Melipona beecheii in Costa Rica (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae). Insect. Soc. 45: 427-443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blatt J. and Roces F. 2001. Haemolymph sugar levels in foraging honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica): dependence on metabolic rate and in vivo measurement of maximal rates of trehalose synthesis. J. Exp. Biol. 204: 2709-2716.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blatt J. and Roces F. 2002. The control of the proventriculus in the honeybee (Apis mellifera carnica L.) I. A dynamic process influenced by food quality and quantity? J. Insect Physiol. 48: 643-654.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouwma A.M., Bouwma P.E., Nordheim E.V. and Jeanne R.L. 2003. Adult mortality rates in young colonies of a swarm-founding wasp (Polybia occidentalis). J. Zool. 260: 11-16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Candy D.J. 1989. Utilization of fuels by the flight muscle. In: Insect Flight (Goldsworthy G.J. and Wheeler C.H., Eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. pp 305-319.

  • Carmer S.G. and Swanson M.R. 1973. An evaluation of 10 pairwise multiple-comparison procedures by Monte Carlo methods. J. Amer. Statistical Assoc. 68: 66-74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crailsheim K. 1988a. Regulation of food passage in the intestine of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). J. Insect Physiol. 34: 85-90.

  • Crailsheim K. 1988b. Intestinal transport of sugars in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). J. Insect Physiol. 34: 839-845.

  • Dornhaus A. and Chittka L. 1999. Evolutionary origins of bee dances. Nature 401: 38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dornhaus A. and Chittka L. 2001. Food alert in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris): possible mechanisms and evolutionary implications. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 50: 570-576.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dornhaus A. and Chittka L. 2005. Bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) store both food and information in honeypots. Behav. Ecol. 16: 661-666.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dornhaus A., Brockmann A. and Chittka L. 2003. Bumble bees alert to food with pheromone from tergal gland. J. Comp. Physiol. A 189: 47-51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards R. 1980. Social Wasps: Their Biology and Control. Rentokil Limited, Sussex, UK.

  • Farina W.M., Grüter C., Acosta L. and McCabe S. 2007. Honeybees learn floral odors while receiving nectar from foragers within the hive. Naturwissenschaften 94: 55-60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth A.B. 1978. Studies on the behavioral ecology of polygynous social wasps. PhD dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, USA.

  • von Frisch K. 1967. The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, USA.

  • Hocking B. 1953. The intrinsic range and speed of flight of insects. Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 104: 223-345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hölldobler B. and Wilson E.O. 1990. The Ants. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, USA.

  • Hrncir M. 2009. Mobilizing the foraging force: mechanical signals in stingless bee recruitment. In: Food Exploitation by Social Insects: Ecological, Behavioral, and Theoretical Approaches (Jarau S. and Hrncir M., Eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp 199-221.

  • Hrncir M., Mateus S. and Nascimento F.S. 2007. Exploitation of carbohydrate food sources in Polybia occidentalis: social cues influence foraging decisions in swarm-founding wasps. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 61: 975-983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt J.H., Jeanne R.L., Baker I. and Grogan D.E. 1987. Nutrient dynamics of a swarm-founding social wasp species, Polybia occidentalis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Ethology 75: 291-305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt J.H., Rossi A.M., Holmberg N.J., Smith S.R. and Sherman W.R. 1998. Nutrients in social wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Polistinae) honey. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 91: 466-472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jandt J.M. and Jeanne R.L. 2005. German yellowjacket (Vespula germanica) foragers use odors inside the nest to find carbohydrate food sources. Ethology 111: 641-651.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarau S. 2009. Chemical communication during food exploitation in stingless bees. In: Food Exploitation by Social Insects: Ecological, Behavioral, and Theoretical Approaches (Jarau S. and Hrncir M., Eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp 223-249.

  • Jarau S. and Hrncir M. (Eds) 2009. Food Exploitation by Social Insects: Ecological, Behavioral, and Theoretical Approaches, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA.

  • Jeanne R.L. 1981. Alarm recruitment, attack behavior, and the role of the alarm pheromone in Polybia occidentalis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 9: 143-148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeanne R.L. 1986. The organization of work in Polybia occidentalis: costs and benefits of specialization in a social wasp. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 19: 333-341.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeanne R.L. 1991. The swarm-founding Polistinae. In: The Social Biology of Wasps (Ross K.G. and Matthews R.W., Eds), Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA, pp 191-231.

  • Jeanne R.L. and Taylor B.J. 2009. Individual and social foraging in social wasps. In: Food Exploitation by Social Insects: Ecological, Behavioral, and Theoretical Approaches (Jarau S. and Hrncir M., Eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp 53-79.

  • Jeanne R.L., Hunt J.M. and Keeping M.G. 1995. Foraging in social wasps: Agelaia lacks recruitment to food (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). J. Kans. Entomol. Soc. 68: 279-289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kammer A.E. and Heinrich B. 1974. Metabolic rates related to muscle activity in bumblebees. J. Exp. Biol. 61: 219-227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenward M.G. and Roger J.H. 1997. Small sample inference for fixed effects from restricted maximum likelihood. Biometrics 53: 983-997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maschwitz U., Beier W., Dietrich I. and Keidel W. 1974. Futterverständigung bei Wespen der Gattung Paravespula. Naturwissenschaften 61: 506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michener C.D. 1974. The Social Behavior of the Bees. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, USA.

  • Molet M., Chittka L., Stelzer R.J., Streit S. and Raine N.E. 2008. Colony nutritional status modulates worker responses to foraging recruitment pheromone in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 62: 1919-1926.

    Google Scholar 

  • Molet M., Chittka L. and Raine N.E. 2009. How floral odours are learned inside the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) nest. Naturwissenschaften 96: 213-219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naumann M.G. 1970. The nesting behavior of Protopolybia pumila in Panama (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). PhD dissertation, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.

  • Nieh J.C. 2004. Recruitment communication in stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini). Apidologie 35: 159-182.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell S. and Jeanne R.L. 1992. Lifelong patterns of forager behavior in a tropical swarm-founding wasp: effects of specialization and activity on longevity. Anim. Behav. 44: 1021-1027.

    Google Scholar 

  • Overmyer S.L. and Jeanne R.L. 1998. Recruitment to food by the German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 42: 17-21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padilla M.A. and Algina J. 2004. Type I error rates for a one factor within-subjects design with missing values. J. Mod. Appl. Stat. Methods 3: 406-416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhard J., Srinivasan M.V., Guez D. and Zhang S.W. 2004. Floral scents induce recall of navigational and visual memories in honeybees. J. Exp. Biol. 207: 4371-4381.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards O.W. 1971. The biology of the social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). Biol. Rev. 46: 483-528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roces F. and Blatt J. 1999. Haemolymph sugars and the control of the proventriculus in the honey bee Apis mellifera. J. Insect Physiol. 45: 221-229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid-Hempel P. and Schmid-Hempel R. 1984. Life duration and turnover of foragers in the ant Cataglyphis bicolor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Insect. Soc. 31: 345-360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid-Hempel P. and Wolf T. 1988. Foraging effort and life span of workers in a social insect. J. Anim. Ecol. 57: 500-521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schueller T.I., Nordheim E.V., Taylor B.J. and Jeanne R.L. 2010. The cues have it; nest-based, cue-mediated recruitment to carbohydrate resources in a swarm-founding social wasp. Naturwissenschaften 97: 1017-1022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sonnentag P.J. and Jeanne R.L. 2009. Initiation of absconding-swarm emigration in the social wasp Polybia occidentalis. J. Insect Sci. 9(11): 11 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spilke J., Piepho H.-P. and Hu X. 2005. A simulation study on tests of hypotheses and confidence intervals for fixed effects in mixed models for blocked experiments with missing data. J. Agr. Biol. Envir. S. 10: 374-389.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spradbery P.J. 1973. Wasps: An Account of the Biology and Natural History of Solitary and Social Wasps. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA, USA.

  • Taylor B.J., Schalk D.R. and Jeanne R.L. 2010. Yellowjackets use nest-based cues to differentially exploit higher-quality resources. Naturwissenschaften 97: 1041-1046.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor B.J., Nordheim E.V, Schueller T.I. and Jeanne R.L. 2011. Recruitment in swarm-founding wasps: Polybia occidentalis does not actively scent-mark carbohydrate food sources. Psyche 2011: 7 pp.

  • Wheeler C.H. 1989. Mobilization and transport of fuels to the flight muscle. In: Insect Flight (Goldsworthy G.J. and Wheeler C.H., Eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp 273-303.

  • Wilson E.O. 1971. The Insect Societies. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, USA.

  • Woodring J., Boulden M., Das S. and Gäde G. 1993. Studies on blood sugar homeostasis in the honeybee (Apis mellifera, L.). J. Insect Physiol. 39: 89-97.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are pleased to give our sincere thanks to the Hagnauer family and the Centro Rescate Las Pumas for allowing us to collect nests and perform research on their land. We also extend thanks to Luis Alonso Moncada Duran and Teresa Schueller, who helped with nest collection. Teresa Schueller also provided thoughtful comments to improve the manuscript. We are grateful to Erik Nordheim and Peter Crump for help with statistical analyses. Research was supported by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, 546 Russell Labs, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    B. J. Taylor

  2. Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, 546 Russell Labs, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    E. J. Brus & R. L. Jeanne

Authors
  1. B. J. Taylor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. E. J. Brus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. R. L. Jeanne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. J. Taylor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Taylor, B.J., Brus, E.J. & Jeanne, R.L. Introduction of a scented carbohydrate resource into the nest increases departure rate in Polybia occidentalis . Insect. Soc. 59, 151–157 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-011-0200-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-011-0200-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation