Dispersal behavior of yellowjacket (Vespula germanica) queens

M MASSCIOCHI; MARTINEZ ANDRES; AJ PEREIRA; JM VILLACIDE; JC CORLEY

INSECT SCIENCE

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018

1672-9609

Understandingthe factors that affect animal dispersal behavior is important from bothfundamental and applied perspectives. Dispersal can have clear evolutionary andecological consequences, but for non-native insect pests, dispersal capacitycan also help to explain invasion success. Vespulagermanica is a social wasp that in the last century has successfullyinvaded several regions of the world, showing one of the highest spread ratesreported for a non-native insect. In contrast with non-social wasps, in socialspecies, queens are responsible for population re-distribution and spread, asworkers are sterile. For V. germanica,it has been observed that queen flight is limited to two distinct periods:early autumn, when new queens leave the nest to mate and find sheltered placesin which to hibernate, and spring when new colonies are founded. Our aim was tostudy the flight behavior of V. germanicaqueens, by focusing on the different periods in which dispersal occurs,characterizing as well the potential contribution of queen flight (i.e.,distance) to the observed geographical spread. Our results suggest that thedistances flown by non-overwintered queens is greater than that flown byoverwintered individuals, suggesting that the main queen dispersal events wouldoccur before queens enter hibernation. This could relate to a behavioral traitof the queens to avoid the inbreeding with related drones. Additionally giventhe short distances flown and remarkable geographical spread observed, weprovide evidence showing that queen dispersal by flight is likely to contributeproportionately less to population spread than human-aided factors.