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Female‐biased sleeping aggregations of A megilla florea urens ( H ymenoptera: A pidae)
Author(s) -
Yokoi Tomoyuki,
Watanabe Mamoru
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
entomological science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1479-8298
pISSN - 1343-8786
DOI - 10.1111/ens.12112
Subject(s) - biology , morning , zoology , nest (protein structural motif) , burrow , ecology , demography , botany , biochemistry , sociology
Although male bees and wasps aggregate in specific sites overnight, few studies have addressed the behaviors of female hymenopterans during the night. It is generally understood that they spend the night in a burrow or nest structure. We found female‐biased sleeping aggregations of A megilla florea urens in populations on I riomote I sland. The sex ratio and number of sleeping individuals in the sex‐mixed aggregations changed daily. This species used dead branches as its main sleeping places, and the maximum number of individuals observed per place was 15. Females arrived at the aggregation place later and left it earlier in the morning than did males. Our result suggests that females used the sleeping place regularly but avoided a long stay with males. The use of the same sleeping place by the two sexes may be due to a limited number of sites suitable for sleeping in the forest.