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Cuckoo wasps manipulate foraging and resting activities in their hosts

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Abstract

Parasite-induced alterations in host behaviour have been reported in a large number of taxa. However, some parasites are better than others to exploit the resources offered by their hosts. To date, our understanding of the extent to which some obligate parasites exploit social insect colonies is still limited. In this study, we examined parasite-mediated behavioural alterations of Polistes biglumis wasps parasitized by the obligate social parasite Polistes atrimandibularis by comparing host female-activity in parasitized and non-parasitized colonies. Host foundresses foraged more and rested less in parasitized than in non-parasitized colonies (controlling for the number of larvae in the nest, the time of day, and the day in the season). Next, we used short-term parasite removal experiments to investigate how social parasites manipulate their hosts. We found that parasitized hosts foraged more and rested less when social parasites were on the nest rather than after their removal, and we tested which kind of interactions occurred between parasites and hosts. P. atrimandibularis parasites may use mainly non-aggressive interactions (such as antennation and trophallaxis) to manipulate host activities, rather than visual, acoustic or chemical signals as other parasites do.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the students who helped in the collection of field data. We appreciate the inputs and ideas developed during discussions with Valeria Di Bona and thank two anonymous referees for their precious comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding was obtained from the MURST ex 60 % (to M. C. L.).

Ethical standards

The authors declare that the experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed (i.e. France).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. A. Uboni

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 90187, Umeå, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123, Torino, Italy

    S. Fucini, A. Uboni & M. C. Lorenzi

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  1. S. Fucini
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  2. A. Uboni
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  3. M. C. Lorenzi
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Correspondence to M. C. Lorenzi.

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Communicated by S. Cremer

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Fucini, S., Uboni, A. & Lorenzi, M.C. Cuckoo wasps manipulate foraging and resting activities in their hosts. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 1753–1759 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1783-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1783-y

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