Interactions of Social Wasps with Microorganisms

Insects maintain many interactions with microorganisms, and these may become key factors for establishing new relationships, environments, and food resources. Such associations with microorganisms may play an important role in colony health, since sociability, especially in Hymenoptera, induce greater vulnerability to pathogens due to the genetic homogeneity and the greater physical proximity among the individuals of a colony. In addition, species-to-species interactions have great potential for the generation of systems with emergent properties. For example, symbiosis provides the host with the ability to use new metabolic pathways or products from the symbiont. Landmark examples of long-term and tightly developed interactions are photosynthetic species and other eukaryotes. The leaf cutter ant-microorganism relationship has generated antibiotics that protect the colony and open a significant new resource for the ants. These themes have been widely explored for many insects, including social groups such as termites, bees, and ants. However, in wasps, and especially in neotropical wasps, the topic deserves stronger research efforts.