Data from: Specialists and generalists coexist within a population of spider-hunting mud dauber wasps

Individual foraging specialization describes the phenomenon where
conspecifics within a population of generalists exhibit differences in
foraging behavior, each specializing on different prey types. Individual
specialization is widespread in animals, yet is understudied in
invertebrates, despite potential impacts to food web and population
dynamics. Sceliphron caementarium (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) is an excellent
system to examine individual specialization. Females of these mud-dauber
wasps capture and paralyze spiders which they store in mud nests to
provision their offspring. Individuals may make hundreds of prey choices
in their short lifespan and fully intact prey items can be easily
excavated from their mud nests, where each distinct nest cell represents a
discrete foraging bout. Using data collected from a single population of
S. caementarium (where all individuals had access to the same resources),
we found evidence of strong individual specialization; individuals
utilized different resources (with respect to prey taxa, prey ecological
guild, and prey size) to provision their nests. The extent of individual
specialization differed widely within the population with some females
displaying extreme specialization (taking only prey from a single species)
while others were generalists (taking prey from up to six spider
families). We also found evidence of temporal consistency in individual
specialization over multiple foraging events. We discuss these findings
broadly in the context of search images, responses to changing prey
availability, and intraspecific competition pressure.