Facial patterns in a tropical social wasp correlate with colony membership

Baracchi, David; Turillazzi, Stefano; Chittka, Lars

doi:10.1007/s00114-016-1406-8

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…The acquisition of facial pattern recognition in paper wasps may consequently be promoted from visual learning abilities if the appropriate visual information is available. Thus, in the hover wasp, Liostenogaster flavolineata (Baracchi, Turillazzi, & Chittka, 2016), the facial pattern variability correlates with colony membership, thus enabling reliable visual categorization of relevant social groups. These wasps were indeed shown to prioritize visual over olfactory cues to fight against intruders (Baracchi, Petrocelli, Chittka, Ricciardi, & Turillazzi, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Avarguès‐Weber

d’Amaro²,

Metzler³

et al. 2017

AB&C

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-The capacity to recognize perceptually similar complex visual stimuli such as human faces has classically been thought to require a large primate, and/or mammalian brain with neurobiological adaptations. However, recent work suggests that the relatively small brain of a paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus, possesses specialized face processing capabilities. In parallel, the honeybee, Apis mellifera, has been shown to be able to rely on configural learning for extensive visual learning, thus converging with primate visual processing. Therefore, the honeybee may be able to recognize human faces, and show sophisticated learning performance due to its foraging lifestyle involving visiting and memorizing many flowers. We investigated the visual capacities of the widespread invasive wasp Vespula vulgaris, which is unlikely to have any specialization for face processing. Freely flying individual wasps were trained in an appetitive-aversive differential conditioning procedure to discriminate between perceptually similar human face images from a standard face recognition test. The wasps could then recognize the target face from novel dissimilar or similar human faces, but showed a significant drop in performance when the stimuli were rotated by 180°, thus paralleling results acquired on a similar protocol with honeybees. This result confirms that a general visual system can likely solve complex recognition tasks, the first stage to evolve a visual expertise system to face recognition, even in the absence of neurobiological or behavioral specialization.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Avarguès‐Weber

d’Amaro²,

Metzler³

et al. 2017

AB&C

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show abstract

“…P . biglumis colony signature changed over time: on average, the amount of hydrocarbons on the nests increased seven times during about 80 days, which indirectly reinforces the hypothesis that the nest has a central role in the mechanisms of nestmate recognition in social wasps and open the question whether nests are similarly rich in hydrocarbons in hover wasps, which prioritizes visual cues over colony odor cues in nestmate recognition [ 47 , 48 ]. A strong increase in hydrocarbon concentration with colony cycle has also recently found in bumblebee wax, where quantitative and qualitative variations in wax characteristics may affect worker reproductive decisions [ 49 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Nest signature changes throughout colony cycle and after social parasite invasion in social wasps

et al. 2017

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Social insects recognize their nestmates by means of a cuticular hydrocarbon signature shared by colony members, but how nest signature changes across time has been rarely tested in longitudinal studies and in the field. In social wasps, the chemical signature is also deposited on the nest surface, where it is used by newly emerged wasps as a reference to learn their colony odor. Here, we investigate the temporal variations of the chemical signature that wasps have deposited on their nests. We followed the fate of the colonies of the social paper wasp Polistes biglumis in their natural environment from colony foundation to decline. Because some colonies were invaded by the social parasite Polistes atrimandibularis, we also tested the effects of social parasites on the nest signature. We observed that, as the season progresses, the nest signature changed; the overall abundance of hydrocarbons as well as the proportion of longer-chain and branched hydrocarbons increased. Where present, social parasites altered the host-nest signature qualitatively (adding parasite-specific alkenes) and quantitatively (by interfering with the increase in overall hydrocarbon abundance). Our results show that 1) colony odor is highly dynamic both in colonies controlled by legitimate foundresses and in those controlled by social parasites; 2) emerged offspring contribute little to colony signature, if at all, in comparison to foundresses; and 3) social parasites, that later mimic host signature, initially mark host nests with species-specific hydrocarbons. This study implies that important updating of the neural template used in nestmate recognition should occur in social insects.

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“…Individual recognition has also been described in Liostenogaster flavolineata hover wasps, where colour patterns appear to mediate acceptance and rejection of individuals as nest-mates [55,64]. A recent analysis of colour pattern diversity in L. flavolineata found that colour patterns cluster by colony [65], which is consistent with an additive genetic basis of colour pattern variation in that species, though specific estimates of the quantitative genetic architecture are needed. Other species of wasps show complex colour patterns that could mediate individual recognition [66] and might be expected to show similar patterns of genetic architecture as we have found here, though tests for individual recognition and colour pattern heritability are needed in other wasps to understand how generalizable the patterns found in P. fuscatus are to colour pattern variability in other social wasps.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Heritable variation in colour patterns mediating individual recognition

2017

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Understanding the developmental and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain variation in natural populations remains a major challenge for modern biology. Populations of Polistes fuscatus paper wasps have highly variable colour patterns that mediate individual recognition. Previous experimental and comparative studies have provided evidence that colour pattern diversity is the result of selection for individuals to advertise their identity. Distinctive identity-signalling phenotypes facilitate recognition, which reduces aggression between familiar individuals in P. fuscatus wasps. Selection for identity signals may increase phenotypic diversity via two distinct modes of selection that have different effects on genetic diversity. Directional selection for increased plasticity would greatly increase phenotypic diversity but decrease genetic diversity at associated loci. Alternatively, heritable identity signals under balancing selection would maintain genetic diversity at associated loci. Here, we assess whether there is heritable variation underlying colour pattern diversity used for facial recognition in a wild population of P. fuscatus wasps. We find that colour patterns are heritable and not Mendelian, suggesting that multiple loci are involved. Additionally, patterns of genetic correlations among traits indicated that many of the loci underlying colour pattern variation are unlinked and independently segregating. Our results support a model where the benefits of being recognizable maintain genetic variation at multiple unlinked loci that code for phenotypic diversity used for recognition.

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Facial patterns in a tropical social wasp correlate with colony membership

Cited by 19 publications

References 76 publications

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Nest signature changes throughout colony cycle and after social parasite invasion in social wasps

Heritable variation in colour patterns mediating individual recognition

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