Skip to main content
Log in

Tiny but socially valuable: eggs as sources of communication in the social wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Chemical compounds play a major role in the recognition processes in social insects, and one class of compounds namely hydrocarbons cover the adult body, but also the surface of their eggs. The ability to discriminate between friends from foes minimizes the exploitation of resources. We investigated for the first time whether females of Mischocyttarus cerberus, which is often attacked by other wasp species, can discriminate their own eggs over the eggs of foes. By using a non-destructive technique, we experimentally collected eggs from post-worker emergent nests, and we offered their eggs to other nests to test the policing behavior in M. cerberus. Overall, our results show that the females of M. cerberus can discriminate eggs according to their origin, and most of the removed eggs were policed within the first hour of the experiment, revealing that females have accurate discrimination skills. The discrimination skill allows females to detect eggs. We discuss that chemical cues present over the surface of eggs may be important for them to be accepted or removed, and these cues may be important to avoid parasitism. In this case, eggs represent alternative tools of communication, once they carry chemical compounds linked to their nest. Additionally, dominant females (= queens) are the most likely individuals to remove the eggs. Altogether, our results reinforce that the nestmate recognition ability is not restricted to recognizing adult relatives, but it is also extended to recognizing brood in Mischocyttarus societies.

Significance statement

Nestmate recognition is responsible to maintain social integrity in social insect colonies, as individuals can recognize friends from foes. We investigated whether nestmate recognition works on brood recognition in the primitively eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus. The nest of this species is deprived of an envelope and often can be attacked by parasitoids or other wasp species. By transplanting eggs from one colony to another using paper cells, we studied whether females would destroy introduced eggs more often. As a result, we found that M. cerberus females are capable to recognize introduced and their own eggs and remove introduced eggs more often. Hydrocarbons covering the egg surface are the likely chemical cues that allow such recognition to occur. These results suggest that nestmate recognition is not limited to perceiving adult nestmates, but also brood in this wasp species.

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

Access this article

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that supports the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this manuscript.

References

Download references

Funding

This study was financially supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 and grant 2018/22461–3 São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) to RCS. Funding was provided from Bilateral grant FWO-FAPESP to CAO, FSN, and TW (process numbers: 2018/10996–0 and 2021/05598-8 FAPESP and FWO: GOF8319N, FWO: GOF6622N), Research Foundation Flanders to CAO (postdoctoral fellowship FWO-12V6318N and research grant FWO-1513219N), and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico to FSN (307702/2018–9).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Conceptualization: RCS and CAO. Methodology: RCS. Formal analysis and investigation: RCS and CAO. Writing original draft: RCS and CAO. Writing review and editing: all authors. Funding acquisition: all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rafael Carvalho da Silva.

Ethics declarations

Competing interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Communicated by D. Naug.

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cintia Akemi Oi and Fabio Santos Nascimento shared senior authorship.

Supplementary Information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

da Silva, R.C., Wenseleers, T., Oi, C.A. et al. Tiny but socially valuable: eggs as sources of communication in the social wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 77, 44 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-023-03319-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-023-03319-5

Keywords

Navigation