TESTING SCENARIOS: WASP SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Abstract— A complex evolutionary model is tested with a cladistic approach. Cladograms constructed for all of the genera of social Vespidae are optimized for characters associated with social behavior. The character state assignments to the interior nodes are compared with the stages envisioned in the "polygynous family" hypothesis for the evolution of wasp social behavior (West-Eberhard, 1978). Several of the transitions proposed in the model are consistent with the results: caste formation preceding long-term monogyny, and long-term polygyny developing from monogyny. Some transitions do not accord with these results: long-term polygyny evidently did not evolve directly from a "rudimentary-caste-containing" stage, and a stage of tasteless nest sharing may not have occurred.