Female–female attraction influences nest establishment in the digger wasp Stizus continuus (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

Polidori, Carlo; Mendiola, Pablo; Asís, Josep Daniel; Tormos, J.; Selfa, Jesús; Andrietti, Francesco

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.10.018

Cited by 17 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In digger wasps, this pattern is reported in one species (Polidori et al. ). Second, females' positive experience of previous nest locations may encourage subsequent nest establishment on that site, as observed in birds (Hoi et al.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…; Jovani & Tella ), bees (Potts & Willmer ), wasps (Polidori et al. ) and ants (Kenne & Dejean ; Santamaría et al. ; Tanner & Keller ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rubink ; Potts & Willmer ; Polidori et al. ). This approach is suitable to depict animal spatial behaviour at multiple scales and, consequently, to study attraction and repulsion dynamics (Polidori et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial Nest‐Settlement Decisions in Digger Wasps: Conspecifics Matter more than Heterospecifics and Previous Experience

et al. 2014

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Research into the driving forces behind spatial arrangement of wasp nests has considered abiotic environmental factors, but seldom investigated attraction or repulsion towards conspecifics or heterospecifics. Solitary female digger wasps (Hymenoptera) often nest in dense aggregations, making these insects good models to study this topic. Here, we analysed the nesting patterns in an area shared by three species of the genus Bembix, in a novel study to discover whether female wasps are attracted to or repulsed by conspecific nests, heterospecific nests or their own previously established nests when choosing nest‐digging locations. Early in the season, each species showed a clumping pattern of nests, but later in the season, a random distribution of nests was more common, suggesting an early conspecific attraction. Such behaviour was confirmed by the fact that females started building their nests more frequently where other females of their species were simultaneously digging. The distances between subsequent nests dug by individual females were shorter than those obtained by random simulations. However, this pattern seemed to depend on the tendency to dig close to conspecifics rather than remain in the vicinity of previous nests, suggesting that females' experience matters to future decisions only on a large scale. Nesting patches within nest aggregations largely overlapped between species, but the nests of each species were generally not closer to heterospecific nests than expected by chance, suggesting that females are neither repulsed by, nor attracted to, congenerics within nest aggregations. A role of the spatial distribution of natural enemies on the observed nesting patterns seemed unlikely. Bembix digger wasp nest aggregations seem thus to be primarily the result of female–female attraction during nest‐settlement decisions, in accordance with the ‘copying’ mechanisms suggested for nesting vertebrates.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…; Jovani & Tella ), bees (Potts & Willmer ), wasps (Polidori et al. ) and ants (Kenne & Dejean ; Santamaría et al. ; Tanner & Keller ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial Nest‐Settlement Decisions in Digger Wasps: Conspecifics Matter more than Heterospecifics and Previous Experience

et al. 2014

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“…Perhaps males concentrate on plots with more bushes, which could provide sheltered during the periods of highest temperature or at night. In fact, the most visited plots at site A were also partially covered by Arthrocnemum fruticosum (Chenopodiaceae) bushes (see Figure 2 in Polidori et al, 2008), where males were sometimes observed to hide. However, the overall preference for sites A and D likely depends on the much higher host nest density (and thus probable higher number of emerging and host-searching mutillid females).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the study area, a coastal salt marsh with damp sandy soil, N. viduata is a parasitoid of the digger wasps Stizus continuus (Klug) and Bembecinus tridens (Fabr. ), both nesting abundantly since at least the mid-eighties (Asís et al, 1988;Polidori et al, 2008). Both hosts are solitary, ground-nesting wasps that provision their nests with orthopterans (S. continuous) or homopterans (B. tridens) (Polidori et al, 2007(Polidori et al, , 2009b.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Scramble competition by males of the velvet ant Nemka viduata (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae)

Polidori¹,

Benéitez²,

Asís³

et al. 2013

Behav

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The mating systems of mutillid wasps have rarely been studied. Here we present information on the mating system of Nemka viduata. At a site in southern Spain, many males of this species were seen flying over host (digger wasp) nest aggregations while searching for females. Male activity was greatest in the early morning and late afternoon, when females were more active searching for hosts, and on days when relatively large numbers of females were active. Males were not territorial but instead attempted to find emerging females before their competitors. As many as six males might arrive at a receptive female more or less simultaneously. Struggles to control access to females continued until one male copulated with the female on the ground or carried it off in flight to a location away from rival males. Male size seems to affect the patrolling behaviour (number of patrolled sites), but there is little evidence of an advantage for larger males, as expected in a scramble competition mating system. Scramble competition mating systems often evolve in species in which large numbers of males compete for scarce receptive females, a factor that makes male territorial defence of large areas highly costly.

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Morphological distance and inter‐nest distance account for intra‐specific prey overlap in digger wasps (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

et al. 2012

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Although inter-individual diet variation is common in predatory wasp populations, the factors accounting for such variation are still largely unknown. Here, we asked if paired diet dissimilarity in three species of digger wasps correlates with morphological distance and inter-nest distance, two factors previously linked to diet partitioning in vertebrates. Results sharply differed among species and generations. All sampled populations showed significant inter-individual diet variation for prey taxa, but only in half of the cases for prey size. In one generation of two species [Bembix zonata Klug and Stizus continuus (Klug)], similar-sized wasps had similar prey taxonomic spectra (and for S. continuus also similar prey size spectra), a phenomenon which probably reduces intra-specific competition. In addition, B. zonata females nesting closer to each other had more similar prey taxonomic spectra, suggesting that distant females probably hunt on different patches that harbour different prey species. For the females of a further species (Bembix merceti Parker), pairwise size difference and inter-nest distance did not affect prey dissimilarity. Both morphological distance and inter-nest distance are potentially important in shaping the overlap of individual resource use in wasps, though probably only in certain conditions such as a highly clumped distribution of nests and size-related constraints on prey selection.

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Female–female attraction influences nest establishment in the digger wasp Stizus continuus (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

Cited by 17 publications

References 34 publications

Spatial Nest‐Settlement Decisions in Digger Wasps: Conspecifics Matter more than Heterospecifics and Previous Experience

Spatial Nest‐Settlement Decisions in Digger Wasps: Conspecifics Matter more than Heterospecifics and Previous Experience

Scramble competition by males of the velvet ant Nemka viduata (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae)

Morphological distance and inter‐nest distance account for intra‐specific prey overlap in digger wasps (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae)

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