Branch formation

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Nest box occupied by hornets

As branch formation is the process of moving a hornet's people in a branch nest .

Hornets nest inside cavities of different sizes. In the spring, hornet queens sometimes settle in small cavities such as B. bird nest boxes that offer too little space for the full development of the hornet state. It is not uncommon for branch nests to be formed. These are spatially separated new builds of nests by the same colony in a more suitable place, which is usually close to the original nest, but can also be several hundred meters away. Once workers have discovered a corresponding spot, they start building the nest there, parallel to the old nest. First, new honeycombs are built. Then some workers fly with the queen to the new nest . Since only the queen lays eggs in hornets (the workers prevent each other from laying eggs), no more eggs are laid at the old nest location after the move. The workers look after both nests for a while until the old nest gradually dies out.

The formation of branch nests with the possibility of subsequent relocation of the nest location exists, as far as known, within the social wasps exclusively in hornets. From Vespula TYPES only functionless branch nests are known to be empty. A strange, non-functional double nest is described from Austria, which probably went back to a mechanically damaged wasp's nest, in which workers may have started building a second neighboring nest, but which ultimately remained unused.

Subsidiary or daughter nests are also referred to as dependent nest foundations in which the mother colony is formed by "budding", i.e. H. Splitting off part of the colony with a new queen results in a new nest. This can be independent or remain in contact with the nut nest. Such daughter nest formations occur z. B. in field wasps (Polistinae) and in many species of ants. As with hornets, ants only move their nests if the conditions at the original nest change or if it is disturbed. In the case of termites and ants, there are also satellite nests , i.e. H. spatially separate nest locations that are used by the same colony at the same time.

swell

  • Rolf Ripberger & Claus-Peter Hutter: Protect the hornets. Weitbrecht-Verlag, Stuttgart and Vienna 1992. ISBN 3-522-30450-0

Individual evidence

  1. ^ KR Foster, J. Gulliver, FLW Ratnieks (2002): Worker policing in the European hornet Vespa crabro. Insectes Sociaux 49: 41-44.
  2. ^ Heinrich Kemper & Edith Döring: The social fold wasps of Europe. Parey Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1967. pp. 64/65.
  3. ^ Alois Kofler (1994): Natural history rarities from East Tyrol: Double nest of the German wasp (Paravespula germanica). Osttiroler Heimatblätter 62 (9/10)
  4. ↑ C. Peeters & F. Ito (2001): Colony dispersal and the evolution of queen morphology in social Hymenoptera. Annual review of entomology 46: 601 - 630. doi : 10.1146 / annurev.ento.46.1.601