The role of juvenile hormone in dominance behavior, reproduction and cuticular pheromone signaling in the caste-flexible epiponine wasp, Synoeca surinama

Table 1 Basic information for colonies used in this report

Colony			Original queens			Prospective queens		Workers	Collection
ID	Colony phase	Envelope removed?	#	Ctlr. age^a	Oocytes >70% LME^b	♀ ♀ present^c	♀ ♀ benders^d	#	Month/Year
1	post-em’	No	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.a.	n.a.	~200	Feb. 2010
2	post-em’	No	n.d.	n.d.	n.d.	n.a.	n.a.	~300	Mar. 2010
4	post-em’	Yes	4	5	9 (5–12)	W	W	~65	July 2010
5	post-em’	Yes	32	1.5-4	3.4 (1–4)	P, W	P, W	~300	Nov. 2010
6	pre-em’	Yes	12	4.5-5	7.9 (4–10)	W	W	~200	May 2011
7	post-em’	Yes	7	4.5-5	6.4 (4–9)	P, I, W	P	~90	June 2011
8	post-em’	Yes	11	4.5-5	6.5 (5–8)	P, W	P	~150	Oct. 2011
9	post-em’	Yes	1	5	13	P, I, W	P, I, W	~70	Nov. 2011
10	post-em’	Yes	4	4.5	14.8 (10–18)	P, I, W	P, I, W	~250	Nov. 2011
11	post-em’	Yes	1	n.a.	n.d.	n.a.	n.a.	~100	Nov. 2011
12	post-em’	Yes	5	n.a.	n.d.	n.a.	n.a.	~200	Nov. 2011

Colony phase indicates whether the nest had produced the first generation of adults [(pre- and post-emergent (em’)]. Males were only seen in Colony 4. When all queens were removed from a nest, they could be replaced by: 1) females that were still pupae (P) at that time; 2) the youngest adults on the nest which were not observed to work and were idle (I); and/or 3) workers (W).
^aAge of the wasps is represented as cuticular (Ctlr.) age which was estimated on a scale of 1-5 according to the darkness of the cuticle. Scale shown in Additional file 9: Figure S1.
^bAverage number of oocytes >70% length of mature egg (LME) is given along with the range within a given colony.
^c♀ ♀ present indicates the types of females present when the queen was removed.
^d♀ ♀ benders indicates which females became the next cohort of prospective queens.
n.a., Not applicable; n.d., Not determined.

ISSN: 1742-9994