Intraspecific defense: advantage of social cooperation among paper wasp foundresses
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|March 31, 1978
Abstract:
Foundress associations and high frequencies of conspecific nest usurpation are most common where densities of Polistes metricus are high. Here nest usurpation occurs primarily in single-foundress colonies resulting in multiple-foundress colonies having significantly greater productivities than single-foundress colonies. This is not true at low densities. Conspecific pressures and not predation or parasitism provide an advantage to cooperating wasp foundresses in P. metricus.
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