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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Peering into the Dynamics of Social Interactions: Measuring Play Fighting in Rats
Published on: January 18, 2013
Dominance interactions in young adult paper wasp (Polistes dominulus) foundresses: a playlike behavior?
Leonardo Dapporto1, Stefano Turillazzi, Elisabetta Palagi
1Centro Interdipartimentale Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio dell'Universita di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Abstract:
The idea that insects play has often aroused skepticism. Nevertheless, the authors investigated the occurrence of a playlike behavior in young individuals of a paper wasp. Polistes dominulus foundresses hibernate in aggregations and found associative nests in the spring. In aggregations, wasps exhibit most of the rank-dependent behaviors that they will use in the nest 6 months later. In aggregations, precocious dominance interactions are performed with exaggerated frequencies, whereas aggression and trophallaxis are rare. Dominance behavior in aggregations is apparently useless, but it probably allows wasps to assess their dominance potential without any apparent reproductive competition. Surprisingly, these interactions may be best interpreted as play because dominance behavior in aggregations shares several features with mammalian play fighting.
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