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Thermoregulation of individual paper wasps (Polistes dominula) plays an important role in nest defence and dominance battles

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Abstract

Paper wasps, like Polistes dominula, are considered as primitively eusocial. Hence, they are often used as model species for studies about the evolution of eusociality and dominance hierarchies. However, our knowledge about basic physiological processes in these wasps remains limited. In particular, the thermoregulation of individual wasps in their natural habitat has not yet been investigated in detail. We conducted a comprehensive field study to test their ability to respond to external hazards with elevated thorax temperatures. We presented artificial threats by applying smoke or carbon dioxide simulating fire and predator attacks, respectively, and monitored the thorax temperature of wasps on the nest using infrared thermography. We found that P. dominula workers recognized smoke and CO2 and reacted almost instantaneously and simultaneously with an increase of their thorax temperature. The maximal thorax temperature was reached about 65 s after the application of both stressors, but subsequently, the wasps showed a different behaviour pattern. No rise of the thorax temperature was detectable after an air blast was applied or in wasps resting on the nest. These observations provide evidence that P. dominula is able to heat up its thorax and that thermoregulation is employed in escape and defence reactions. Additionally, we investigated the thorax temperatures of queens during dominance battles. We found that the thorax temperature of the dominant queens rose up to 5 °C compared to that of subordinate queens that attacked the former, suggesting that the dominant queen defends herself as well as her nest.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to Prof. Dr. Hildburg Beier for the helpful discussions and productive comments on the manuscript. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Johannes Spaethe for the most helpful discussions. Thanks to Prof. Dr. Hans J. Gross for the critical reading of the manuscript and to Shawn Kennedy for the language support. We are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their critical and helpful suggestions. N. H. was supported by a grant of the German Excellence Initiative to the Graduate School of Life Sciences, University of Würzburg.

Ethical standards

The authors declare that the experiments performed in this study comply with the current laws of Germany.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biocentre, Department of Behavioural Physiology & Sociobiology, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany

    Nicole Höcherl & Jürgen Tautz

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  1. Nicole Höcherl
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  2. Jürgen Tautz
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Correspondence to Nicole Höcherl.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Höcherl, N., Tautz, J. Thermoregulation of individual paper wasps (Polistes dominula) plays an important role in nest defence and dominance battles. Sci Nat 102, 32 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1283-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1283-6

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