‘Male-stuffing’ in wasp societies

Abstract

Intracolony aggression within and between castes of social insects is common¹,³. We have observed an unusual aggressive interaction between nestmates of the paper wasp Polistes dominulus. In response to foragers returning to the colony, females (workers) initiate aggressive encounters with males culminating with the male being forced head-first into an empty nest-cell (‘male-stuffing’). ‘Stuffed’ males are unable to feed, so the behaviour seems to ensure that food is preferentially channelled to larvae, which are likely to be more closely related to the workers than are the adult males.