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Aggressive interactions for a decentralized regulation of foraging activity in the social wasp Polistes versicolor
Authors:A R De Souza  F Prezoto
Institution:1. Laboratório de Ecologia Comportamental, Programa de Pós-Gradua??o em Ciências Biológicas, Comportamento e Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Campus Universitário, Bairro Martelos, Minas Gerais, CEP 36036-900, Brazil
Abstract:Physical aggression among nestmates is commonly observed in animal societies like Polistes paper wasps, where it can be used to suppress worker reproduction. There is no consensus about how individuals use aggression in contexts other than reproduction. In order to clarify this topic, the regulation of worker-foraging behavior was studied in the Neotropical eusocial wasp Polistes versicolor. By experimentally manipulating food demand, we found evidence that aggression is used as a decentralized mechanism of regulating foraging, because after food supplementation: (1) aggression levels and foraging rates decreased and (2) aggression received and exhibited by foragers and non-foragers decreased. P. versicolor can use aggression in both reproductive and foraging contexts. The conclusion is drawn that this species is a good model for understanding how individuals differ from aggression related to reproduction and foraging, which would allow understanding of the evolutionary shift in the function of aggression from being the mechanism of reproductive control to being co-opted for the decentralized, self-organized regulation of worker-foraging.
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