NESTMATE AND NEST DISCRIMINATION AMONG WORKERS FROM NEIGHBORING COLONIES OF SOCIAL WASPS POLISTES-EXCLAMANS

In the laboratory, there was a significant positive correlation between the difference in preference toward nestmates and non-nestmates and internest distance (ie distance in the field between the nestmates' and non-nestmates' nests), the first demonstration of a distance effect in nestmate recognition ability among Polistes. The field significance of the laboratory bioassay of nestmate preference was confirmed by releasing in the field workers whose nests had been removed and finding that they joined colonies near the site of their original nest. Orphaned workers also tended to join smaller colonies, perhaps because there workers had a greater opportunity for reproduction on smaller colonies. This pattern may also reflect a greater tendency on the part of inhabitants of smaller nests to admit joiners, because the addition of a worker may have had a greater impact on colony success on a smaller colony than on a larger nest. Workers prefer fragments of nests located closer in the field to the workers' colony than fragments of more distant nests; this may aid workers in choosing which nests to joint and which to rob. -from Author