The structure of dominance hierarchies in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata

In queenright colonies of the old world tropical primitively eusocial polis tine wasp, Ropalidia marginata, queens are behaviourally docile and subordi nate individuals. Yet, they are completely successful in suppressing reprod uction by all nestmates. Here we show that dominance hierarchies in queenri ght colonies are never significantly linear but, in the queen determination stage, when new queens use overt physical aggression to establish their st atus, dominance hierarchies among the same individuals are significantly li near. This striking difference in the structure of dominance hierarchies in queenright colonies as compared to the queen determination stage, is consi stent with the previously postulated hypothesis that, while dominance behav iour functions to regulate worker reproduction in the queen determination s tage, the same behaviours are used by the workers to regulate each others' foraging in queenright colonies.