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Interactions between the Social Digger Wasp, Cerceris rubida, and Its Brood Parasitic Flies at a Mediterranean Nest Aggregation

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Abstract

The fitness consequence of many behaviours of the small digger wasp, Cerceris rubida (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), the only European species of its genus in which females share nests, are still unknown. Here, I present novel data on the nesting patterns and nest parasites of an Italian population of this wasp, with emphasis on which behavioural strategies may have evolved to reduce brood parasitism. Nests were established mainly in horizontal surfaces with scarce vegetation and hard soil, resulting in spatially clumped nests; the extent of nest aggregation increased over a 6-year period. Wasp brood cells are attacked by the miltogrammine fly Pterella grisea (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), which waits for nest-returning wasps on perching sites and then follows them in flight (satellite flight), eventually landing on the nest entrance and larvipositing without entering further in the tunnel. This technique seems to be adaptive for the parasitic flies, which would be rejected from nests by the guarding wasps if attempting to enter. The daily activity of the flies closely matched the host wasp’s provisioning activity, but C. rubida females were able to partially confound the tracking flies by performing evasive manoeuvres while returning to the nest. Patches with higher nest density and nests with more resident females did suffer more fly landings on nest entrances (a prerequisite for larviposition). These trends, however, disappeared on a per nest basis and on a per wasp provisioning flight basis, respectively. Across two years, only 6% of brood cells were parasitized, a picture similar to what observed for miltogrammine flies at nest aggregations of other Cerceris spp., and new data are necessary to test if there is a benefit of either nest density or nest sharing against P. grisea parasitism.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by a three years grant FIRB (Fondo per gli Investimenti della Ricerca di Base) RBAU019H94-001 (2001). The author was funded by a post-doctoral contract funded by Universidad de Castilla la Mancha and the European Social Fund (ESF). Thanks are due to the Maremma Regional Park offices for allowing permission for the field study. I am grateful to Francesco Andrietti (University of Milan) for critical discussion of the results and to the following students which helped with the data collection during the years of study: Davide Bertè, Fabio Perelli, Luca Cerasa, Olga Montani, Claudia Contaldi, Luigimaria Borruso and Alice Rubichi.

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  1. Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales (ICAM), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avenida Carlos III, s/n, 45071, Toledo, Spain

    Carlo Polidori

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Polidori, C. Interactions between the Social Digger Wasp, Cerceris rubida, and Its Brood Parasitic Flies at a Mediterranean Nest Aggregation. J Insect Behav 30, 86–102 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-017-9601-9

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