A possible novel function of dominance behaviour in queen-less colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata

Lamba, Shakti; Kazi, Yasmin Claire; Deshpande, Sujata A.; Natesh, Meghana; Bhadra, Anindita; Gadagkar, Raghavendra

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2006.12.003

Cited by 42 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Such dominance behaviour among the workers cannot be associated with the reproductive competition, because there is no correlation between the dominance rank of an individual and the probability that she will replace a lost or removed queen [68]. With some experimental correlates, it has been argued earlier that the workers use dominance to transfer information about the colony needs to their co-workers, which is essential for their self-organized regulation of work [15][16][17]. However, there has been no previous study of how efficient such a mechanism can be.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been experimentally demonstrated that the foragers receive more dominance than the non-foragers, and the frequency of the dominance received by the foragers is correlated with their foraging rates [15]. It was also found that the dominance received by the foragers increases when a colony is forced to starve [16], and decreases when a colony is fed in excess [17]. Similar correlations between dominance behaviour and worker activities are also observed in other species of the same subfamily Polistinae: Polistes dominulus [18,19], Polybia occidentalis [20] and Polybia aequatorialis [21].…”

Section: The Model Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social insect colony as a biological regulatory system: modelling information flow in dominance networks

Nandi

Annagiri

Bhattacharya

2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Social insects provide an excellent platform to investigate flow of information in regulatory systems since their successful social organization is essentially achieved by effective information transfer through complex connectivity patterns among the colony members. Network representation of such behavioural interactions offers a powerful tool for structural as well as dynamical analysis of the underlying regulatory systems. In this paper, we focus on the dominance interaction networks in the tropical social wasp Ropalidia marginata-a species where behavioural observations indicate that such interactions are principally responsible for the transfer of information between individuals about their colony needs, resulting in a regulation of their own activities. Our research reveals that the dominance networks of R. marginata are structurally similar to a class of naturally evolved information processing networks, a fact confirmed also by the predominance of a specific substructure-the 'feed-forward loop'-a key functional component in many other information transfer networks. The dynamical analysis through Boolean modelling confirms that the networks are sufficiently stable under small fluctuations and yet capable of more efficient information transfer compared to their randomized counterparts. Our results suggest the involvement of a common structural design principle in different biological regulatory systems and a possible similarity with respect to the effect of selection on the organization levels of such systems. The findings are also consistent with the hypothesis that dominance behaviour has been shaped by natural selection to co-opt the information transfer process in such social insect species, in addition to its primal function of mediation of reproductive competition in the colony.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Model Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social insect colony as a biological regulatory system: modelling information flow in dominance networks

Nandi

Annagiri

Bhattacharya

2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…This of course raises the question of why the potential queens themselves are so aggressive. We are gathering evidence that the aggression of potential queens helps them to develop their ovaries rapidly (Lamba et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

We know that the wasps ‘know’: cryptic successors to the queen inRopalidia marginata

Bhadra

Gadagkar

2008

Biol. Lett.

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Unlike other primitively eusocial wasps, Ropalidia marginata colonies are usually headed by remarkably docile and behaviourally non-dominant queens who are nevertheless completely successful in maintaining reproductive monopoly. As in other species, loss of the queen results in one of the workers taking over as the next queen. But unlike in other species, here, the queen's successor cannot be predicted on the basis of dominance rank, other behaviours, age, body size or even ovarian development, in the presence of the former queen. But the swiftness with which one and only one individual becomes evident as the potential queen led us to suspect that there might be a designated successor to the queen known to the wasps, even though we cannot identify her in the queen's presence. Here, we present the results of experiments that support such a 'cryptic successor' hypothesis, and thereby lend credence to the idea that queen (and potential queen) pheromones act as honest signals of their fertility, in R. marginata.

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“…It might seem obvious that the aggression is to overcome challenges from others, but Gadagkar and his students have found that the reason for the aggression is that it accelerates the development of the queen's ovaries (8).…”

Section: The Origins Of Eusocialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Profile of Raghavendra Gadagkar

Mossman¹

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A possible novel function of dominance behaviour in queen-less colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata

Cited by 42 publications

References 18 publications

Social insect colony as a biological regulatory system: modelling information flow in dominance networks

Social insect colony as a biological regulatory system: modelling information flow in dominance networks

We know that the wasps ‘know’: cryptic successors to the queen inRopalidia marginata

Profile of Raghavendra Gadagkar

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