A network analysis of dominance and colonial activity in Mischocyttarus metathoracicus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

• Grant number: 19/08029-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2019
• End date: March 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Santos do Nascimento
• Grantee: Wilson França de Oliveira Neto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Social insects are excellent models of biological systems in which interactions performed by individuals have an outcome of dynamic patterns of connections. Dominance hierarchy is one of the social systems better understood in several groups of animals and exerts the function of social structure regulator on group activities. Eussocial wasps of the subfamily Polistinae present totipotent castes with a hierarchical social organization based on dominance and subordinate interactions. Dominance hierarchy not only determines reproductive work, it also has an influence on the regulation of other tasks such as parental care, colony defense, and foraging. Thus, we propose to use as model species the wasp Mischocyttarus metathoracicus and Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools to (1) investigate dominance hierarchy ontogeny, transitivity degree of dominance interactions as well as to characterize whether hierarchy fits into linear, despotic or shared; (2) to test whether bursts of activity are regulated by the queen or in a decentralized way and (3) to correlate behavioral profile, morphophysiological features such as body size, age, ovarian development and spermathecal contents to dominant succession process. The present study aims to add knowledge about biological complex systems of organization as well as about behavior and biology of neotropical eusocial wasps. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE SOUZA, ANDRE RODRIGUES; FRANCA, WILSON; PRATO, AMANDA; DO NASCIMENTO, FABIO SANTOS; BROWN, GRANT. Sex recognition does not modulate aggression toward nest intruders in a paper wasp. CURRENT ZOOLOGY, v. N/A, p. 8-pg., 2022-07-04. (20/14464-2, 18/10996-0, 19/08029-4)

DE SOUZA, ANDRE RODRIGUES; PRATO, AMANDA; FRANCA, WILSON; SANTOS, SIRCIO; LIMA, LUAN DIAS; ALVES, DENISE ARAUJO; BERNARDES, RODRIGO CUPERTINO; SANTOS, EDUARDO FERNANDO; DO NASCIMENTO, FABIO SANTOS; LIMA, MARIA AUGUSTA PEREIRA. A predatory social wasp does not avoid nestmates contaminated with a fungal biopesticide. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, v. 30, n. 47, p. 11-pg., 2023-09-11. (18/10996-0, 19/08029-4, 20/14464-2, 20/06632-2, 21/00984-7, 22/07997-0)

DE SOUZA, ANDRE RODRIGUES; FRANCA, WILSON; PRATO, AMANDA; RANTALA, MARKUS J.; DO NASCIMENTO, FABIO SANTOS. Recognition of conspecific immunological status in a neotropical paper wasp. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY, v. N/A, p. 8-pg., 2023-04-04. (18/10996-0, 19/08029-4, 20/14464-2)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

OLIVEIRA NETO, Wilson França de. A network analysis of dominance and colonial activity in Mischocyttarus metathoracicus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). 2021. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) Ribeirão Preto.