Defensive responses to visual and vibrational stimulations in colonies of the social wasp Polistes dominulus

In the present study we firstly described the behavioural alarm pattern shown by the paper wasp Polistes dominulus once disturbed. Then we investigated through laboratory experiments how wasps defend the colony in response to visual and vibrational stimulations. Our results show that the wasps exhibit a stereotyped series of behaviours, known as warning behaviours, that follow a precise sequence. Afterwards the combination of visual and vibrational stimuli induces a higher number of wasps to attack the source of disturbance and diminishes the time needed by the wasps to react to an external intruder compared to the visual stimulation, alone.

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