College of Arts & Sciences

Kyle Moynahan

College of Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sean O’Donnell Biodiversity, Earth & Environmental Sciences

Katie Fiocca Co-Mentor

The effect of diet and social behavior on caste determination in tropical paper wasps

Within highly eusocial insect species with dimorphic castes, larval diet determines adult morphology. The way castes are determined in a primitively eusocial species with monomorphic castes is less clear. Mischocyttarus paper wasps are primitively eusocial with females either functioning as egg layers or foragers. Females emerge morphologically identical but differentiate themselves into social castes via dominance interactions. Adult behavior and diet are believed to play a role in determining a female’s caste post-emergence. Previous studies on eastern yellow jackets suggest that individuals from different social castes were fed diets from different trophic levels, with reproductive castes being fed from the highest trophic level (Schmidt et al., 2012). Using stable isotope analysis, we plan to explore the ratios of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) in wasp samples to examine the diet of the wasp. Samples with higher nitrogen ratios are a result of a diet richer in animal tissues and are indicative of high trophic level diet. By examining dominance behavior and diet of Mischocyttarus paper wasps, we aim to better understand the social caste determination of primitively eusocial insects.