ABSTRACT
Polistes colonies are relatively small, reproductive dominance apparently is maintained by physical aggression, physical castes are lacking, and division of labor is incomplete, with queens often performing worker-like tasks. Queens lay most of the eggs, spend more time on the nest, initiate most of the cells, forage primarily for nesting materials, and perform behavior generally associated with dominance; workers do most of the foraging for food and spend relatively little time on the nest. Information theory was used to measure differences between the behavioral repertories of different workers and between the behavioral repertories of workers of different ages. Spearman rank correlation was used to compare the behavior of every individual in a colony to every other individual in that colony and to compare the behavior performed in each age category to every other age category. The behavior of 54 workers of Polistes fuscatus variatus from 7 colonies located in the field is quantified using the focal animal sampling technique.
