Highlights•Worker behavioral variation is linked to differences in individual nutritional
state.•Experimental evidence shows causal role of nourishment in worker social …

In insect societies lacking morphologically specialized breeders and helpers, reproduction is
often restricted to behaviorally dominant individuals. Such societies occur in about 100 …

In this book, the biologist Raghavendra Gadagkar focuses on the single species he has
worked on throughout his career. Found throughout southern India, Ropalidia marginata is a …

Hymenopterans present a fascinating diversity of social organisation, from solitary
individuals building unprotected nests like the potter wasps to the very complex and highly …

In most primitively eusocial wasps new nests are initiated by a single female or by small
groups of females. To study the emergence of division of labor (DOL) among the nest …

Biological market theory is potentially useful for understanding helping behaviour in animal
societies. It predicts that competition for trading partners will affect the value of commodities …

In mature post-emergence colonies of the tropical primitively eusocial polistine wasp
Ropalidia marginata, the queen is not a behaviourally dominant individual. Nevertheless …

Colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata consist of a single egg layer
(queen) and a number of non–egg-laying workers. Although the queen is a docile individual …

Dominance interactions affected patterns of non-reproductive division of labor (polyethism)
in the eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus mastigophorus. Socially dominant individuals foraged …

Being social and living in groups is often advantageous over leading a solitary life. At the
same time, however, cooperative systems are susceptible to exploitation and cheating by …