We measured the productivity and mortality over the first 25 days of growth of newly-founded colonies of Polybia occidentalis, a Neotropical swarm-founding wasp, that were infested to varying degrees by an undescribed species of neogregarine parasite. By both of the measures of colony productivity we used - number of cells built by the swarm and dry weight of brood produced - per capita productivity was a negative function of the proportion of the adults infested. Mortality, measured as the proportion of the founding population lost over the 25 days, showed the opposite pattern, decreasing with increasing infestation. Data on behavior suggest that infested individuals foraged less than uninfested ones, thus reducing their exposure to depredation risk, and brought in less materials to construct the nest and provision the brood.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Vespidae Polybia occidentalis
Keywords: parasites, social wasps
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA