Intraspecific cleptoparasitism represents a facultative strategy advantageous for reducing time and energy costs. However, only a few studies about nesting dynamics have described intraspecific cleptoparasitic behaviour in obligate solitary bees. We focused on nesting dynamics with the characterisation of nest owner replacements and frequency of true usurpation in four aggregating species belonging to different phylogenetic lineages--Andrena vaga (Andrenidae), Anthophora plumipes (Apidae), Colletes cunicularius (Colletidae), and Osmia rufa (Megachilidae). Our study, based on the regular observation of individually marked females, shows that nest owner replacement affects 10-45% of nests across all of the studied species and years. However, 39-90% of these nests had been abandoned before owner change and thus true nest usurpations represent only a part of observed nest replacement cases. Females tend to abandon their nests regularly and found new ones when they live long enough, which is in accordance with risk-spreading strategy. We suggest that the original facultative strategy of observed solitary bees during nest founding is not cleptoparasitism per se but rather reuse of any pre-existing nest (similar to "entering" strategy in apoid wasps). This is supported by gradual increase of nests founded by "entering" during the season with an increase in the number of available nests. Although the frequent reuse of conspecific nests results in frequent contact between solitary females, and rarely, in the short-term coexistence of two females in one nest, we detected unexpectedly low level of conflict in these neighbourhood societies. We suggest that nesting dynamics with regular nest switching and reusing reduces long-term and costly intraspecific aggression, a key factor for the origin and evolution of sociality.

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Prague Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Wilson EO (1971) The insect societies. CambridgeMA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 570 p.

Michener CD, Lange RB, Bigarella JJ, Salamuni R (1958) Factors influencing the distribution of beeś nests in earth banks. Ecology 39: 207–217.

Hamilton WD (1971) Geometry for the selfish herd. Journal of Theoretical Biology 31: 295–311. PubMed

Wcislo WT (1984) Gregarious nesting of a digger wasp as a “selfish herd” response to a parasitic fly (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae; Diptera: Sacrophagidae). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 15: 157–160.

Rosenheim JA (1990) Density-dependent parasitism and the evolution of aggregated nesting in the solitary Hymenoptera. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 83: 277–286.

Potts S, Willmer P (1997) Abiotic and biotic factors influencing nest-site selection by Halictus rubicundus, a ground-nesting halictine bee. Ecological Entomology 22: 319–328.

Lin N, Michener CD (1972) Evolution of sociality in insects. The Quarterly Review of Biology 47: 131–159.

Michener CD (1974) The social behavior of the bees: A comparative study. CambridgeMA: Harvard University Press. 422 p.

Alcock J (1975) Social interactions in the solitary wasp Cerceris simplex (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Behaviour 54: 142–152.

Field J (1992) Intraspecific parasitism as an alternative reproductive tactic in nest-building wasps and bees. Biological Reviews 67: 79–126.

Fisher RM (1993) How important is the sting in insect social evolution. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 5: 157–168.

Field J (1989) Alternative nesting tactics in a solitary wasp. Behaviour 110: 219–243.

Eickwort GC (1975) Gregarious nesting of the mason bee Hoplitis anthocopoides and the evolution of parasitism and sociality among megachilid bees. Evolution 29: 142–150. PubMed

Ward SA, Kukuk PF (1998) Context-dependent behavior and the benefits of communal nesting. American Naturalist 152: 249–263. PubMed

Velthuis H (1987) The evolution of sociality: ultimate and proximate factors leading to primitive social behaviour in carpenter bees. Experientia Supplementum (Basel): 405–430.

Miller R, Kurczewski F (1973) Intraspecific interactions in aggregations of Lindenius (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae, Crabroninae). Insectes Sociaux 20: 365–378.

Wuellner CT (1999) Alternative reproductive strategies of a gregarious ground-nesting bee, Dieunomia triangulifera (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Journal of Insect Behavior 12: 845–863.

Brockmann HJ, Dawkins R (1979) Joint nesting in a digger wasp as an evolutionarily stable preadaptation to social life. Behaviour 71: 203–245.

Brockmann JH, Grafen A, Dawkins R (1979) Evolutionarily stable nesting strategy in a digger wasp. Journal of Theoretical Biology 77: 473–496. PubMed

Ben Mordechai Y, Cohen R, Gerling D, Moscovitz E (1978) The biology of Xylocopa pubescens (Spinola) (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae) in Israel. Journal of Entomology: 107–121.

Kaitala V, Smith BH, Getz WM (1990) Nesting strategies of primitively eusocial bees - a model of nest usurpation during the solitary state of the nesting cycle. Journal of Theoretical Biology 144: 445–471.

Lopez-Vaamonde C, Koning JW, Brown RM, Jordan WC, Bourke AFG (2004) Social parasitism by male-producing reproductive workers in a eusocial insect. Nature 430: 557–560. PubMed

Wossler TC (2002) Pheromone mimicry by Apis mellifera capensis social parasites leads to reproductive anarchy in host Apis mellifera scutellata colonies. Apidologie 33: 139–163.

Fabre J-H (1914) The mason-bees. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 330 p.

Mathews RW (1965) The biology of Heriades carinata Cresson (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae). Contributions of the American Entomological Institute 1: 1–33.

Hefetz A, Tengo J (1992) Dispersed versus gregarious nesting strategies in the mason bee Chalicodoma siculum . Journal of Zoology 226: 529–537.

Barthell JF, Thorp RW (1995) Nest usurpation among females of an introduced leaf-cutter bee, Megachile apicalis . Southwestern Entomologist 20: 117–124.

Eickwort GC, Eickwort KR, Linsley EG (1977) Observations on nest aggregations of the bees Diadasia olivacea and D. diminuta (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 50: 1–17.

Neff JL, Simpson BB, Dorr LJ (1982) The nesting biology of Diadasia afflicta Cress. (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 55: 499–518.

Vinson SB, Frankie GW (2000) Nest selection, usurpation, and a function for the nest entrance plug of Centris bicornuta (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 93: 254–260.

Jang Y, Wuellner CT, Scott CS (1996) Floating and fidelity in nest visitation by Crawfordapis luctuosa (Hymenoptera: Colletidae). Journal of Insect Behavior 9: 493–504.

Wcislo WT (1987) The roles of seasonality, host synchrony, and behaviour in the evolutions and distributions of nest parasites in Hymenoptera (Insecta) with special reference to bees (Apoidea). Biological Reviews 62: 515–542.

Rezkova K, Zakova M, Zakova Z, Straka J (2012) Analysis of nesting behavior based on daily observation of Andrena vaga (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae). Journal of Insect Behavior 25: 24–47.

R Development Core Team (2011) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available: http://www.R-project.org. Accessed 2013 Aug 2.

Spessa A, Schwarz P, Adams M (2000) Sociality in Amphylaeus morosus (Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Hylaeinae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 93: 684–692.

Michener C (1956) The ethology of Andrena erythronii with comparative data on other species (Hymenoptera, Andrenidae). University of Kansas Science Bulletin 37: 645–684.

Eickwort GC (1977) Aspects of the nesting biology and descriptions of immature stages of Perdita octomaculata and P. halictoides (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 50: 577–599.

Alcock J (1982) Nest usurpation and sequential nest occupation in the digger wasp Crabro monticola (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Canadian Journal of Zoology 60: 921–925.

Wcislo W (1985) Parasite pressure and repeated burrow use by different individuals of Crabro (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae; Diptera: Sarcophagidae). Sociobiology 1: 115–126.

Schönitzer K, Klinksik C (1990) The ethology of the solitary bee Andrena nycthemera Imhoff, 1866 (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Entomofauna 11: 377–427.

Gillespie JH (1974) Natural selection for within-generation variance in offspring number. Genetics 76: 601–606. PubMed PMC

Hopper KR (1999) Risk-spreading and bet-hedging in insect population biology. Annual Review of Entomology 44: 535–560. PubMed

Straka J, Černá K, Macháčková L, Zemenová M, Keil P (2013) Lifespan in natural populations of bees: the role of activity, climate and parasitic infestation. In press.

Malyshev (1936) The nesting habits of solitary bees. A comparative study. Eos 11: 201–309.

Williams HJ, Strand MR, Elzen GW, Vinson SB, Merritt SJ (1986) Nesting behavior, nest architecture, and use of Dufour’s gland lipids in nest provisioning by Megachile integra and M. mendica mendica (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 59: 588–597.

Bulmer MG (1984) Risk avoidance and nesting strategies. Journal of Theoretical Biology 106: 529–535.

Broom M, Luther RM, Ruxton GD (2004) Resistance is useless? Extensions to the game theory of kleptoparasitism. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 66: 1645–1658. PubMed

Maynard Smith J (1974) The theory of games and the evolution of animal conflicts. Journal of Theoretical Biology 47: 209–221. PubMed