Research interests
My PhD focuses on nest drifting behaviour in a tropical paper wasp, Polistes canadensis.
Drifting behaviour occurs in several species of eusocial Hymenoptera such as bees, bumblebees, and wasps including Polistine wasps. Drifters move to nests of the same or different species in order to usurp queen position or lay their eggs with the aim of living as a parasite inside the visited colony (social parasitism). Nest drifting behaviour in P. canadensis was recently identified as an other alternative reproductive strategy, whereby drifting wasps may gain indirect fitness benefits by helping raise related brood on several different nests instead of focusing helps in their natal nest (to which wasps are always more closely related). During my PhD, I will determine whether these discrepancies in indirect fitness benefits can be explain in terms of productivity, relatedness and queen/nest quality. In other words, I will explore whether drifters maximise their inclusive fitness by investing the most help in nests where the pay-offs are the greatest. Moreover, the evolution of drifting behaviour and its importance remain poorly investigating because of the difficulties of quantifying drifting with traditional methods. Thus I will use a new monitoring technology, radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging, which provide more accurate data. This project on nest drifting behaviour in P. canadensis is supervised by Prof. Laurent Keller in collaboration with Dr. Seirian Sumner from The Zoological Society of London.
Drifting behaviour occurs in several species of eusocial Hymenoptera such as bees, bumblebees, and wasps including Polistine wasps. Drifters move to nests of the same or different species in order to usurp queen position or lay their eggs with the aim of living as a parasite inside the visited colony (social parasitism). Nest drifting behaviour in P. canadensis was recently identified as an other alternative reproductive strategy, whereby drifting wasps may gain indirect fitness benefits by helping raise related brood on several different nests instead of focusing helps in their natal nest (to which wasps are always more closely related). During my PhD, I will determine whether these discrepancies in indirect fitness benefits can be explain in terms of productivity, relatedness and queen/nest quality. In other words, I will explore whether drifters maximise their inclusive fitness by investing the most help in nests where the pay-offs are the greatest. Moreover, the evolution of drifting behaviour and its importance remain poorly investigating because of the difficulties of quantifying drifting with traditional methods. Thus I will use a new monitoring technology, radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging, which provide more accurate data. This project on nest drifting behaviour in P. canadensis is supervised by Prof. Laurent Keller in collaboration with Dr. Seirian Sumner from The Zoological Society of London.
