BEHAVIOR DURING SWARM MOVEMENT IN 
STELOPOLYBIA AREATA 
(HYMENOPTERA: VESPIDAE) 
By Robert L. Jeanne 
Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, Mass. 02215 
and Museum of Comparative Zoology 
H arvard University, Cambridge 02138 
Introduction 
When a colony of bees or wasps leaves an old nesting site and 
moves to a new one it is faced with the problem of coordinating the 
movement of the individuals of the swarm so that all arrive at the 
new site. Scout honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) communicate the dis- 
tance and direction of the new site by means of the same waggle 
dance used to communicate information about food sources (von 
Frisch, 1967). Martin G. Naumann has observed swarm movement 
in several species of Neotropical social wasps and has described 
behavior that suggests that scent marks are used to guide swarm 
members to a new site (Naumann, 1975). 
The purpose of this paper is to present the author’s own observa- 
tions on behavior associated with swarm movement in Stelopolybia 
areata. The study was conducted during February 1973 at the 
Estacion de Biologia ‘Los Tuxtlas’ near San Andres Tuxtla, Vera- 
cruz, Mexico. 
Behavior Associated with Swarm Movement 
The colony in which the behavior was observed had been con- 
structing a new nest two meters up in a bush along a small arroyo 
in a cow pasture. On the morning of February 4 the adult popu- 
lation of several thousand was found to have abandoned the nest 
and to have settled on a twig of a large tree about 10 meters distant. 
The cause of the absconding was not certain, but several army ant 
( Eciton sp.) workers on the ground below the nest suggested that 
the nest may have been raided by a swarm of these ants earlier in 
the morning. 
On the afternoon of the 4th and on each of the following three 
afternoons the swarm moved to a new site, providing an opportunity 
to observe its behavior. Data pertaining to each move are summarized 
in Table 1. The following description of the behavior of the wasps 
is extracted from the four days’ observation. 
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