Demographic and genetic evidence for cyclical changes in queen number in a neotropical wasp, Polybia emaciata

The high level of relatedness among members of epiponine wasp colony is best explained by the cyclical oligogny hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that recently built colonies are likely to be populated by many young queens with few eggs each. Nests of these wasps that are about to swarm have fewer older queens with mature ovaries and developing queens. Therefore, the population of queens in a colony is inversely proportional to the age of the colony.