Injaian, Allison

Sheehan, Michael

Tibbetts, Elizabeth

English

Sydney eScholarship

 OR408 Cognitive differences across sex and caste in Polistes paper wasps Elizabeth Tibbetts, Allison Injaian, Michael Sheehan   An animal's cognitive abilities are thought to be shaped by the biotic and abiotic environment it experiences.  Social insects provide good models for studying the causes and consequences of variation in cognition given the substantial behavioral and developmental differences that occur across castes and sexes.  Here, we compare associative visual learning in foundresses, workers, gynes, and males of the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus. Polistes are a primitively eusocial group that lacks discrete pre-imaginal castes, though there are behavioral differences across castes. P. fuscatus are a particularly interesting group for studying variation in visual learning, as foundresses and workers use facial patterns for individual recognition. Foundresses are also specialized for face learning, as they learn conspecific faces faster and more accurately than other visual stimuli. We found that associative learning varied significantly across caste and sex.  In particular, males learn visual images less quickly and accurately than females.  Workers learned all types of images less quickly and accurately than foundresses. Workers also lacked specialization for face learning, as they learned faces and non-face images similarly. Cognitive differences across sexes and castes may reflect different selective pressures, particularly differences in social complexity between foundresses, workers, and males.   

Cognitive differences across sex and caste in Polistes paper wasps

https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/10982/2/OR408.pdf

Cognitive differences across sex and caste in Polistes paper wasps

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