Ovarian development in a primitively eusocial wasp: Social interactions affect behaviorally dominant and subordinate wasps in opposite directions relative to solitary females

• Social interactions affect ovaries of paired wasps in opposite directions.
• Dominant wasps achieved greater ovaries than solitary females at 4 weeks.
• Subordinate wasps had smaller ovaries than solitary wasps at 4 weeks.
• Dominance and ovarian development were correlated in paired wasps.
• Workers could achieve higher indirect fitness by boosting ovaries of their queens.

In many primitively eusocial wasp species new nests are founded either by a single female or by a small group of females. In the single foundress nests, the lone female develops her ovaries, lays eggs as well as tends her brood. In multiple foundress nests social interactions, especially dominance–subordinate interactions, result in only one ‘dominant’ female developing her ovaries and laying eggs. Ovaries of the remaining ‘subordinate’ cofoundresses remain suppressed and these individuals function as workers and tend the dominant's brood. Using the tropical, primitively eusocial polistine wasp Ropalidia marginata and by comparing wasps held in isolation and those kept as pairs in the laboratory, we demonstrate that social interactions affect ovarian development of dominant and subordinate wasps among the pairs in opposite directions, suppressing the ovaries of the subordinate member of the pair below that of solitary wasps and boosting the ovaries of dominant member of the pair above that of solitary females. In addition to being of physiological interest, such mirror image effects of aggression on the ovaries of the aggressors and their victims, suggest yet another mechanism by which subordinates can enhance their indirect fitness and facilitate the evolution of worker behavior by kin selection.