Odour and visual cues utilised by German yellowjackets (Vespula germanica) while relocating protein or carbohydrate resources

Moreyra, Sabrina; D’Adamo, Paola; Lozada, Mariana

doi:10.1071/zo06029

Cited by 32 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Location appears to trump the displaced visual cue when the forager had visited the original bait ∼4+ times, as in this study and D'Adamo and . When controlled for training, the findings presented here corroborate other Vespula studies that document increased visitation of displaced landmarks with limited training (≤4 visits) Moreyra et al 2006;D'Adamo and Lozada 2007;D'Adamo and Lozada 2008). Moreover, documented that experienced German yellowjackets visited the learned feeder location more than wasps with less or no training did.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Level of experience modulates individual foraging strategies of an invasive predatory wasp

Rankin

2014

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Spatiotemporal variation in access to resources modulates foraging behavior. Because flexible foraging and subsequent shifting niches can have cascading effects on food webs, it becomes critical to understand what and how information is used during foraging. Yellowjackets are efficient foragers, quickly relocating rewarding resources. Foraging context and the degree of experience were found to affect subsequent behavior and foraging success. An individual forager's likelihood of relocation was highest for carbohydrates compared to protein and for higher-quality baits. While there was no evidence that odor marking is involved in relocation of sucrose baits, foragers did utilize visual landmarks in the context of protein scavenging. Wasps with limited experience (<4 visits) with a bait responded the most to landmark displacement. However, more experienced wasps avoided misdirection and correctly cued in on the bait. Commensurate with training, a wasp forager visited more often and improved search times at the exact resource location despite displaced landmarks. Successful wasps may detect and associate multiple cues with the training micro-site; such integration of cues could allow the wasps to return to a specific location, even when obvious cues are displaced. Thus, reinforced associative learning likely contributes substantially to foraging patterns and ultimately invasion success, with resource reliability playing a large role. This emphasizes the importance of controlling for experience when comparing foraging across treatments or studies for social wasps.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Level of experience modulates individual foraging strategies of an invasive predatory wasp

Rankin

2014

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…Local enhancement processes such as the sight and odour of conspecifics at a food source assist the recruitment of wasps to a particular location (D'Adamo et al 2000(D'Adamo et al , 2001(D'Adamo et al , 2003(D'Adamo et al , 2004D'Adamo and Lozada 2005). They are also able to locate food from its odour (Moreyra et al 2006) and will search for a food Fig. 3 Relationship between the proportion of ivy flowers that set mature fruit in 18 9 0.5 m 2 quadrats and the total number of wasp 'patch arrivals' per quadrat recorded over the flowering period (Sept to Nov)/no.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinator effectiveness and fruit set in common ivy, Hedera helix (Araliaceae)

Jacobs

Clark

Denholm

et al. 2009

Arthropod-Plant Interactions

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Flowers of common ivy (Hedera helix L.) provide late season pollen and nectar for several insect groups, and its fruits are a winter and spring food source for frugivorous birds. Ivy benefits from insect pollination in order to set fruit, but it is unknown which flower-visiting insects are the most effective pollinators. Our observations suggest that Vespula wasps are potentially the most effective pollinators since they were frequent visitors, had relatively fast foraging rates, carried large numbers of pollen grains on their bodies and had the highest ‘Pollination potential PP index’ score (a measure of pollinator effectiveness) of all the insect groups examined. There was also a positive linear relationship between the proportion of ivy flowers that set fruit and wasp foraging activity in 0.5 m2 quadrats. Visits by Vespula wasps may therefore be important for ensuring a supply of ivy fruits for b

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“…In general, foraging wasps utilize a combination of cues to obtain the greatest amount of information (Jeanne and Taylor 2009). Landing responses are elicited mainly by odour cues on both protein and carbohydrate resources (Moreyra et al 2006). Using their learning abilities, social wasp foragers return to foraging sites where they have been successful and may feed repeatedly on the same kind of resource, thus acting as facultative specialists (Raveret-Richter 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nest-based information transfer and foraging activation in the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

et al. 2015

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The apparent absence of intra-nest signals and communication about food resources (recruitment) among social wasps does not rule out the possibility of information transfer and coordinated foraging among nestmates. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) shows nest-based information transfer and foraging activation: an increase in the probability of an individual leaving the nest as a result of information about resources received from successful foragers. We controlled for the possibility of local enhancement, chemical trails at the food source and climatic variation. We found evidence that food choice and discovery of resources in the field by naïve foragers were assisted by information previously or simultaneously provided by experienced nestmates. This information was related to chemical cues associated with the food and possibly to its location. Our observations suggest piloting between common wasp foragers. At the trained nest, there was a change in foraging effort at the colony level when known resources were available. Reactivated, experienced foragers were the main group responsible for the increase in foraging traffic rate observed at the colony level. To our knowledge, this is the first study clearly demonstrating nest-based information transfer about food resources in V. vulgaris and one of the few providing evidence of foraging activation in social wasps. Our data are consistent with the possibility of recruitment in this group of social insects.

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Odour and visual cues utilised by German yellowjackets (Vespula germanica) while relocating protein or carbohydrate resources

Cited by 32 publications

References 18 publications

Level of experience modulates individual foraging strategies of an invasive predatory wasp

Level of experience modulates individual foraging strategies of an invasive predatory wasp

Pollinator effectiveness and fruit set in common ivy, Hedera helix (Araliaceae)

Nest-based information transfer and foraging activation in the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

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