Researchers Philip Starks, right, a doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior, and Emily Poe, a senior in biology, show some of the video they used to observe the behavior of paper wasps, in 311 Mudd Hall. Frank DiMeo/University Photography
When female wasps return to the colony after foraging, some females initiate aggressive encounters with males and stuff them -- head first -- into empty nest cells, according to Cornell research reported in the Oct. 2 issue of the scientific journal Nature. Researchers call this newly discovered insect behavior "male-stuffing."
"It's a strikingly aggressive behavior," said Philip T. Starks, doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior. "In a wasp colony, the behavior is normally somewhat aggressive, but no one has reported this level of aggression between male and female nestmates before. We observed sting threats, mauling, lots of antagonism. Perhaps it has not been reported because 'male-stuffing' lasts only a few seconds and is thus easy to miss."
The article, "Male-stuffing in wasp societies," researched and written by Starks, from Andover, Mass., and Emily S. Poe, a senior from Endicott, appears in the Scientific Correspondence section of Nature. Starks is working on his doctorate with H. Kern Reeve, assistant professor of biology. The short paper was the first published effort for both Poe and Starks.
Poe and Starks observed and reported on two categories of the aggressive interaction of the paper wasp, Polistes dominulus. Once food arrives for the colony, the "initial stuffing" begins with antenna-to-antenna contact, followed by grappling, biting and sting threats from the females. (Males do not have stingers.) The female then forces the male into a nest cell, head first. The second category of interaction the researchers observed was labeled "repeated stuffing," which is characterized by the female biting and pushing on the abdomen of the male, whose head and thorax already are in the cell.
The researchers discovered this behavior while watching and transcribing video recordings of interactions within a colony. Starks explained that this behavior, if not seen on videotape, is difficult to spot because "'male-stuffing' happens so fast and since colonies typically have over 30 individuals, a single interaction can easily go unnoticed."
As a biology major, Poe became involved in the wasp behavior research after responding to a posted advertisement by Starks for a researcher during her sophomore year. Her job was to look for certain types of behavior among wasps, but the behavior -- stuffing -- which she was the first person to observe, had never been noted before. "I just wrote it down," Poe said. "It was kind of surprising that within the first few weeks of doing this research, that this was a discovery."
The researchers observed 66 stuffing events during a total of 24 hours of videotape recorded on multiple colonies. None of the colonies' queens stuffed males, they reported, and all stuffing was done by worker wasps.
While this behavior may seem strange to humans, the biological logic is sound, the researchers say. Worker wasps bring food back to the colony and feed the needy larvae -- the colony's next reproducing generation.
"Limiting food consumption by males may maximize the worker's inclusive fitness," Poe said. "If you look at their behavior, it gets the males out of the way. This contributes to the colony's fitness."