Mating and Laying of Female-producing Eggs by Orphaned Workers of a Paper Wasp, Polistes snelleni (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)
- 1 November 1985
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Annals of the Entomological Society of America
- Vol. 78 (6) , 736-739
- https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/78.6.736
Abstract
The orphaned workers of a temperate paper wasp, P. snelleni Saussure, laid female-producing eggs in the field. Female worker offspring were produced in 15 (83.3%) of 18 orphaned nests. On the average, 39.4% of the sexed offspring were females. Mating by workers was confirmed by dissection of spermathecae, which contained sperm. In the laboratory, orphaned workers not allowed to mate did not produce female offspring. Production of female eggs by thelytokous parthenogenesis is unlikely.This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Social behavior of early emerging males of a Japanese paper wasp, Polistes chinensis antennalis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)Population Ecology, 1983
- Gerontocracy in the social wasp, Polistes exclamansAnimal Behaviour, 1983