CV and colony data vespid mandible wear

Key structures of insects, such as their mandibles, become worn by the use and this leads to performance constraints, increase of metabolic costs, and decrease of individual’ both lifespan and survival. Studying this phenomenon is interesting in species that build nests as it demands a significant amount of mandible labor; however, the effect of this selective factor is less obvious in species like social vespids that perform different tasks at different ages. By comparing mandible wear between individuals of different ages in 18 colonies of 13 species of neotropical social wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae), we aimed to understand (1) the distribution of mandible wear across ages, and (2) the association between colony size and the coefficient of variation of mandible wear as an indicator of specialization. Despite a general positive trend between mandible wear and age, there are numerous exceptions and no age seems to concentrate this phenomenon. Mandible wear variation was evenly distribut...