Abstract
Hymenoptera show a great variation in reproductive potential and nesting behavior, from thousands of eggs in sawflies to just a dozen in nest-provisioning wasps. Reduction in reproductive potential in evolutionary derived Hymenoptera is often facilitated by advanced behavioral mechanisms and nesting strategies. Here we describe a surprising nesting behavior that was previously unknown in the entire animal kingdom: the use of a vestibular cell filled with dead ants in a new spider wasp (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) species collected with trap nests in South-East China. We scientifically describe the ‘Bone-house Wasp’ as Deuteragenia ossarium sp. nov., named after graveyard bone-houses or ossuaries. We show that D. ossarium nests are less vulnerable to natural enemies than nests of other sympatric trap-nesting wasps, suggesting an effective nest protection strategy, most likely by utilizing chemical cues emanating from the dead ants.
Highlights
Natural selection of life-history strategies results in increased individual fitness by ensuring successful reproduction, but reproductive strategies in animals vary widely [1,2]
We report here on a unique and effective nest-protecting strategy, the construction of a vestibular cell filled with dead ants in a new spider wasp
Low parasitism was unrelated to population density effects [27], delivering initial support for the protective function of the ant-filled vestibular cell
Summary
Natural selection of life-history strategies results in increased individual fitness by ensuring successful reproduction, but reproductive strategies in animals vary widely [1,2]. Typical for most insects, a single female of sawflies and parasitic wasps, which represent the earliest branches in the phylogeny, can lay hundreds of eggs during her lifetime, but the more advanced solitary nest-provisioning Hymenoptera can rarely lay more than a dozen (reviewed in O’Neill [3]) with some species having even lower reproductive rates [4]. Examples of the latter group are the Pompilidae, a cosmopolitan family of spider-hunting wasps, of which the most well-known members are the eye-catching tarantula hawks of the New World genus Pepsis [5]. Mud cells attached under leafs or rock prominences as well as free-hanging nests coated with plant resin occur in several species [7,12]
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