Wasps robbing food from ants: a frequent behavior?
Food robbing, or cleptobiosis, has been well documented throughout the animal kingdom. For insects, intrafamilial food robbing is known among ants, but social wasps (Vespidae; Polistinae) taking food from ants has, to the best of our knowledge, never been reported. In this paper, we present two cases involving social wasps robbing food from ants associated with myrmecophytes. (1) Polybioides tabida F. (Ropalidiini) rob pieces of prey from Tetraponera aethiops Smith (Formicidae; Pseudomyrmecinae) specifically associated with Barteria fistulosa Mast. (Passifloraceae). (2) Charterginus spp. (Epiponini) rob food bodies from myrmecophytic Cecropia (Cecropiaceae) exploited by their Azteca mutualists (Formicidae; Dolichoderinae) or by opportunistic ants (that also attack cleptobiotic wasps). We note here that wasps gather food bodies (1) when ants are not yet active; (2) when ants are active, but avoiding any contact with them by flying off when attacked; and (3) through the coordinated efforts of two to five wasps, wherein one of them prevents the ants from leaving their nest, while the other wasps freely gather the food bodies. We suggest that these interactions are more common than previously thought.
LaPierre
Louis
L
Department of Biology, Lower Columbia College, 1600 Maple Street, Longview, WA 98632, USA. llapierre@lowercolumbia.edu
Hespenheide
Henry
H
Dejean
Alain
A
D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D002980:Climate; D003364:Costa Rica; D017753:Ecosystem; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005616:French Guiana; D012919:Social Behavior; D014863:Wasps / Q000502:physiology*