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Within-group power asymmetries and the resulting reproductive skew, common in most social groups, may effectively be set at the very early stages of group formation, that is, when group membership is determined. Hence, groupmate choices can define an individual’s future reproductive success. We examined how groups of Polistes dominulus formed under natural, unconstrained conditions, using data on the nesting history, kinship and morphology of individually marked foundresses obtained during two consecutive seasons in southern Spain. Foundresses that hibernated in the same aggregation were more likely to start a nest together, but all of the foundresses at a nest were seldom from a single aggregation. Changes in group composition were frequent throughout the preworker period, mainly because some foundresses disappeared and other wasps joined established groups. Within-group relatedness, however, was not affected by the late arrival of wasps. Our results suggest that waiting to join an established group is a common nesting strategy in P. dominulus. Only 16% of marked wasps used more than one nest. Foundresses that moved between groups tended to move to groups in which genetic relatedness among the resident foundresses was higher, but not necessarily relatedness to the moving wasp herself. Overall, nestmate choices were not associated with a single factor. High failure rates, particularly of single-foundress nests, however, suggest that ecological constraints (e.g. risk of predation, lack of resources) may have a stronger effect on individual nesting choices than previously considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Indirect benefits obtained through the reproduction of relatives are fundamental in the formation and maintenance of groups. Here, we examine the hypothesis that females of the temperate paper wasp Polistes dominulus preferentially form groups with close relatives. Genetic relatedness data were obtained for 180 groups of females collected at the early stages of the nesting cycle of a large population of P. dominulus in two sites in southwestern Spain. Average within-group relatedness values ranged from 0.189 to 0.491. Foundresses on early nests were significantly more closely related than females in winter aggregations or in stable groups (just before workers emerged). Within-group relatedness values were independent of group size. The vast majority of worker-producing nests ( c. 85%) had one or more females that were unrelated (or distantly related) to the remaining members of the group. These results provide further support to the hypothesis that indirect fitness benefits alone are unlikely to explain why P. dominulus foundresses form cooperative associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]