Repeated Visits of Polistes Jadwigae Dalla Torre (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) to its hunting site

Abstract

Repeated visits of Polistes jadwigae Dalla Torre to its hunting site were investigated in a small citrus grove where the 5th instar larvae of Papilio xuthus Linne were artificially placed as prey for wasps. The prey-searching wasps that had entered the grove from outside areas were individually marked and their behavior was observed for a maximum of four consecutive days. After hunting prey, each wasp carried a piece of dissected meat to its nest which was far from the grove. They returned to the grove more frequently than the wasps that had left it without finding prey. Returning to the grove, the wasps with hunting experience tended to go to the citrus trees on which they had previously hunted their prey. Most of the wasps that had hunted prey on the previous day visited the grove again on the following day and some repeated the behavior four consecutive days. Such repeated visits of the experienced wasps to the grove resulted in a daily increase of the number of prey hunted by them. © 1978, Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology. All rights reserved.