''Belonogaster juncea'' is a typical

quasisocial Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

paper wasp Paper wasps are a type of Eusociality, social vespid wasps. The term is typically used to refer to members of the Vespidae, vespid subfamily Polistinae, though it often colloquially includes members of the subfamilies Vespinae (hornets and yel ...

from sub-saharan Africa and south-western Asia. It is the type species for the genus '' Belonogaster''.

Breeding

The nest is similar in form to that of the ''

Polistes ''Polistes'' is a cosmopolitan genus of paper wasps and the only genus in the tribe Polistini. Vernacular names for the genus include umbrella wasps, coined by Walter Ebeling in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in refer ...

'' paper wasp's nest and is started in a similar way. However, as ''B. juncea'' is quasisocial no foundress wasp becomes a dominant queen and all foundresses are full egg-layers, as are any daughters which can mate with males and then join the nest working and laying alongside their mothers. In

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, '' B. juncea juncea'' mostly nests in buildings, but nests nave been constructed in the shelter of large boulders. Nests were started throughout the year either by a single female or by groups of two to eight females. Predation and disease meant that only half of the colonies in one study produced at least one adult offspring, and only 10% were able to produce males from the 15% that managed to rear any sexual individuals.

Queen succession

When the original foundress disappears the remaining females fight for dominance, leading to a reduction in breeding success. Almost half of the surviving nests are then abandoned and the average colony lasts about seven months. In a small minority of nests, some females remained on the nest and began a new colonial cycle illustrating semi-independence between colony and nesting cycles. The maximum number of successive cycles to be completed in the same nest was four. The queens of ''B. juncea'' therefore demonstrate serial polygyny.

Behavioural roles

Studies of ''B. juncea'' have discerned four behavioural roles for individual adult wasps in a colony. Reproduction is reserved to one individual and the "workers"’ are divided into foragers, builders and guards. The foragers are females that spend the majority of their time foraging to supply the nest with prey and water. Builders are individuals that will bring wood pulp to the nest and then use it to repair or expand the nest. Guards are those females that spend most of their time being inactive on the nest to defend it and its contents from threats.

Distribution

It ranges through most of Africa south of the Sahara, from

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

in the west to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

in East Africa and south to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, including the island of

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

. It also occurs in Asia as far east as

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

.Kojima J.I. & Keeping M.G. (1985); Larvae of ''Belonogaster juncea colonialis'' Kohl and ''B. petiolata'' (Degeer) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae); Journal of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa 48 233-239

Subspecies

There are two subspecies described. *''Belonogaster juncea colonialis'' Kohl, 1894 *'' Belonogaster juncea juncea'' (Fabricius, 1781)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4884534 Vespidae Hymenoptera of Africa Insects described in 1781