Stefano Turillazzi

University of Florence | UNIFI · Dipartimento di Biologia

Eusocial wasps are represented in the Vespidae by the subfamilies Stenogastrinae, Vespinae and Polistinae. These wasps present colonies that are sometimes composed of thousands of individuals which live in nests built with paper materials. The high density of the adult and larval population, as well as the stable micro environment of the nests, mak...

Specific Venom Immunotherapy (VIT) is practiced with venom extracted from insects, and is the specific therapy used for patients highly allergic to social insect (Hymenoptera) stings. Due to the dramatic shortage of vespid species in the local environment, we coupled vespiculture techniques of Polistes paper wasps with a venom collection procedure...

Insect societies require an effective communication system to coordinate members’ activities. Although eusocial species primarily use chemical communication to convey information to conspecifics, there is increasing evidence suggesting that vibroacoustic communication plays a significant role in the behavioural contexts of colony life. In this stud...

Arthropods can produce a wide range of antifungal compounds, including specialist proteins, cuticular products, venoms and haemolymphs. In spite of this, many arthropod taxa, particularly eusocial insects, make use of additional antifungal compounds derived from their mutualistic association with microbes. Because multiple taxa have evolved such mu...

The significant risk of disease transmission has selected for effective immune-defense strategies in insect societies. Division of labour, with individuals specialized in immunity-related tasks, strongly contributes to prevent the spread of diseases. A trade-off, however, may exist between phenotypic specialization to increase task efficiency and m...

Eusocial insect colonies represent some of the most extreme examples of specialized division of labor. Ageing in workers is often associated with a temporal polyethism in the tasks performed both inside and outside the colony. Such behavioral transition is sometimes linked to a gradual reduction in individual immunity. Here, we studied the immune a...

Like vertebrates, invertebrates evolved acquired immunity based on memory-like mechanisms, known as immunization. Immunization and its transmission among individuals are phylogenetically ancestral and conserved characters that have been reported in different insect orders. Physiological mechanisms are still largely unknown, and the high variability...

Stingless bees often associate with termites, while association with ants is uncommon due to the high costs related to the aggressiveness of ants. Few combative genera of stingless bees can associate with a larger number of hosts, including ants. Here, we describe for the first time the association between a stingless bee (Partamona testacea) and t...

Nest architecture is a fundamental character shaping immune strategies of social insects. The arboreal ant Temnothorax unifasciatus nests in cavities such as oak galls where the entire colony lives in a unique small chamber. In these conditions, physiological and behavioural strategies likely prevail over compartmentalisation and are presumably tun...

Trained immunity is the enhanced response of the innate immune system to a secondary infection after an initial encounter with a microorganism. This non-specific response to reinfection is a primitive form of adaptation that has been shown to be conserved from plants to mammals. Insects lack an acquired immune component and rely solely on an innate...

Honeybee colonies are under the threat of many stressors, biotic and abiotic factors that strongly affect their survival. Recently, great attention has been directed at chemical pesticides, including their effects at sub-lethal doses on bee behaviour and colony success; whereas the potential side effects of natural biocides largely used in agricult...

One of the main tasks a freshly mated ant queen has to face is to find a safe and suitable nest site to start a new colony. Colony foundation by associated queens, also known as pleometrosis, has been described for several ant species and, under specific selective pressures, represents an alternative to independent colony foundation. Despite most n...

Social wasps encompass species displaying diverse social organization regarding colony cycle, nest foundation, caste differences (from none to significant dimorphism) and number of reproductive queens. Current phylogenetic data suggests that sociality occured independently in the subfamily Stenogastrinae and in the Polistinae+Vespinae clade. In mos...

In the study area, in the lands of the NGO Urku Estudios Amazónicos (Tarapoto, Perù), colonies of bullet ant (Partamona testacea) have been found in association with the stingless bee Paraponera clavata. This association appears to be very strict suggesting fot the bee the obligate fundation with ants, at least locally. We studied the behavioural i...

Reproductive and task partitioning in large colonies of social insects suggest that colony members belonging to different castes or performing different tasks during their life (polyethism) may produce specific semiochemicals and be differently sensitive to the variety of pheromones involved in intraspecific chemical communication. The main periphe...

Soluble olfactory proteins differentially expressed in groups of workers (Student t-test Benjamini Hochberg-corrected FDR = 5%).

Complete list of proteins identified in proteomic analysis of antennae from single individuals of nurses (N), foragers (F), virgin queens (RV), mated queens (RF), and established queens (Rold). The protein groups table contains information on the proteins identified in all processed raw-files. Each single row contains the group of proteins that cou...

Complete list of proteins identified in proteomic analysis of antennae from pool of 9 individuals of nurses (N), guards (G), foragers (F) and workers aged 1-week (A), 2-week (B) and 3-week (C). The protein groups table contains information on the proteins identified in all processed raw-files. Each single row contains the group of proteins that cou...

Proteins significantly different between castes (t-test, FDR = 0.05), graphically represented in volcano plot of Figure 2.

Soluble olfactory proteins differentially expressed in single groups of the two castes (Student t-test Benjamini Hochberg-corrected FDR = 5%).

Trans-generational immunization is defined as the transmission of an enhanced resistance to a pathogen from parents to offspring. By using the host-parasite system of the ant Crematogaster scutellaris and the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, we describe this phenomenon for the first time in ants. We exposed four groups of hibernating...

The sting secretion of the common acrobat ant Crematogaster scutellaris (Olivier) (Hymenoptera Formicidae) is a mixture of compounds, produced by the venom and the Dufour’s gastral glands, known to act as a chemical contact poison applied to the enemy’s body. Here we report a preliminary study where the sting secretion and the single dissected gast...

In recent years, a number of studies have suggested that visual status signaling operates in social wasps. In the paper wasp Polistes dominula, status is thought to be signaled by a region of black pigmentation on the yellow clypeus. Specifically, studies of the invasive North American population have indicated that the clypeal patterning of P. dom...

Polistes paper wasps have striking and variable colour patterns. Although these colour patterns are known to function in communication, little is known about how they affect fitness in relation to the abiotic environment. In the present study, we used dried-preserved museum specimens, comprising male and female Polistes from all over the world, aim...

Social insects react to stress at both the individual and colonial level by modifying their physiology, behavior, offspring morphology, and colonial productivity. Experimental protocols involve treatments that potentially increase the stress load and may lead to misleading conclusions if not appropriately evaluated. We examined the long-term conseq...

Purpose of review: This review aims to update the world status of the main allergenic stinging Hymenoptera. Recent findings: In this review, we consider the problems that social Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) could represent in the nearest future for human health in different parts of the world. Summary: Distribution and consistency of all...

Long-term assessment reveals the hidden and hiding effects of experimental stress on ant colonies

Social insects excel in discriminating nestmates from intruders, typically relying on colony odours. Remarkably, some wasp species achieve such discrimination using visual information. However, while it is universally accepted that odours mediate a group level recognition, the ability to recognise colony members visually has been considered possibl...

Detection of diseased individuals in a social group is a critical step of social immunity, to prevent the spread of parasites or pathogens. Parasite-induced alterations of the host phenotype might be used by healthy conspecific to identify an individual bearing a threat to the social group, and to prevent it from entering the colony. The ecto-paras...

Background Cockroaches of the genus Attaphila regularly occur in leaf-cutting ant colonies. The ants farm a fungus that the cockroaches also appear to feed on. Cockroaches disperse between colonies horizontally (via foraging trails) and vertically (attached to queens on their mating flights). We analysed the chemical strategies used by the cockroac...

Leks are characterized by strong male competition and female mate choice. While there is convincing evidence that female choice on leks may be based on male ornaments, little is known about the possibility that the same traits can also mediate conflicts among rivals. Males of Polistes dominula paper wasps have variable yellow abdominal spots. In an...

The biological, social behavior, immature brood, and nest architecture characteristics of the new species, Liostenogaster leonardi S. Turillazzi & F. Turillazzi n. sp., have been studied in a population of colonies in a gazebo of a mountain locality of Peninsular Malaysia. This species shares the main biological features of other species belonging...

Nowadays, the presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been assessed in both wild and human-related environments. Social wasps have been shown to maintain and vector S. cerevisiae among different environments. The availability of strains isolated from wasp intestines represents a striking opportunity to assess if the strains found in wasp intestine...

Recent studies have reported incipient morphological caste dimorphism in the Van der Vecht organ size of some temperate Polistes paper wasps. Whether species other than the temperate ones show a similar pattern remains elusive. Here, we have studied some Neotropical Polistes species. By comparing females collected through the year, we showed caste...

Data used for statistical analyses. (XLSX)

Parameters of models integrating the size variation in the Van der Vecht`s organ, caste and head width of three Neotropical species of Polistes paper wasps. (PDF)

Significance Despite the widespread interest on Saccharomyces cerevisiae , its wild lifestyle is far from being completely understood, with one of the most resounding examples being its sexual attitude. We show that the intestine of social wasps favors the mating of Saccharomyces strains by providing a succession of environmental conditions prompti...

Similarly to the majority of social insects the nest represents for paper wasps an important component of the colony life and it is intimately linked to its social organization. When, in spring, future foundrebes emerge from hibernacula they can choose between building a new nest and reusing an old one. Refurbishing the old nest in order to prepare...

Nest-mate recognition plays a key role in the biology of ants. Although individuals coming from a foreign nest are, in most cases, promptly rejected, the degree of aggressiveness towards non nest-mates may be highly variable among species and relies on genetic, chemical and environmental factors. We analyzed intraspecific relationships among neighb...

To enter and integrate into host nests, ant social parasites employ a variety of behavioural and chemical strategies for bypassing host defences. Alternative chemical strategies are often considered separately, because only one is assumed to be effective in each particular species or in specific phases of the usurpation process. We studied the inte...

Social recognition, i.e. The ability to recognize and assign individual membership to a particular and relevant class, such as caste, dominance status, gender or colony, shapes the amazing organization of insect societies. Traditionally, it has been assumed that social recognition in social insects is mainly governed by chemicals. However, social i...

In several ant species, queens form aggregations that persist throughout the colony foundation phase. Cooperative colony foundation (pleometrosis) is believed to be advantageous especially in highly competitive environments, e.g. in presence of a high density of conspecific nests. In this study we investigated whether pleometrosis occurs in the ant...

Social insects have evolved sophisticated recognition systems enabling them to accept nest-mates but reject alien conspecifics. In the social wasp, Liostenogaster flavolineata (Stenogastrinae), individuals differ in their cuticular hydrocarbon profiles according to colony membership; each female also possesses a unique (visual) facial pattern. This...

Communal nesting, rare in the crabronid wasps, has been recorded for various species in the Spilomenina clade of the Pemphredoninae. A new communally nesting species, Spilomena socialis, is described from peninsular Malaysia where it nested on buildings at Bukit Fraser. The nest consists of a group of closely spaced clusters of vertically oriented...

Conventional signals are maintained via social costs and commonly used in the animal kingdom to assess conspecifics' agonistic ability during disputes over resources. In the last decade, some experimental studies reported the existence of visual conventional signals in several social wasp species, being good rank predictors in different social cont...

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is largely used in the industry of fermentations and has been the cradle and stage of genetics and molecular and cell biology. The recent availability of genome sequences of a large number of S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus strains representing the widest known genetic, phenotypic and geographical diversity, renewed the inte...

Honeybee disappearance is one of the major environmental and economic challenges this century has to face. The ecto-parasitic mite Varroa destructor represents one of the main causes of the worldwide beehive losses. Although halting mite transmission among beehives is of primary importance to save honeybee colonies from further decline, the natural...

The ecto-parasitic mite Varroa destructor represents a crucial driver for the extensive worldwide beehive losses and the parasite is currently considered one of the major threat for apiculture. Therefore, effective methods to stop mite transmission among beehives are of primary importance to save honeybee colonies from further decline. Nevertheless...

In the wasp venom apparatus, the convoluted gland is the tract of the thin secretory unit, i.e. filament, contained in the muscular reservoir. Previous transmission electron microscope investigation on Stenogastrinae disclosed that the free filaments consist of distal and proximal tracts, from/to the venom reservoir, characterized by class 3 and 2...

Relatedness is predicted to be a key determinant of cooperative behavior, but kin discrimination within social insect colonies is surprisingly rare. A lack of reliable cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) cues is thought to be responsible, but here we show that in a high-profile paper wasp model, kin recognition cues are available for some individuals that...

Le malattie possono influire seriamente sulla sopravvivenza e sul successo riproduttivo degli organismi viventi e rappresentano un potente agente di selezione naturale. La crescente consapevolezza dello stretto rapporto che intercorre tra socialità e malattie ha portato negli ultimi anni a un interesse sempre più vivo da parte della comunità scient...

Given the centrality of chemical communication in social insects, there are many selective pressures acting on morpho-functional traits that mediate chemical pheromones. On the last gastral sternite of Polistes females, there is an important exocrine surface secreting chemical pheromone, named Van der Vecht's organ. It is involved in chemical defen...

Discrimination among potential partners is a critical step in sexual selection to avoid wasting reproductive resources on an unsuitable mate. In the female-dominated hymenopteran societies males have often been regarded as ‘flying sperm containers’ spending all their time and energy in trying to acquire a mate.We investigated the male sexual prefer...

The social biology of the wasp Parischnogaster striatula has been studied in Peninsular Malaysia. This species shows the main characteristics of hover wasps (Vespidae, Stenogastrinae) which set them aside from the other social Vespidae. These include the use of an abdominal secretion in brood rearing, the three-phase egg deposition and the presence...

Camouflage strategies are common in insect social parasites. Being accepted into an alien colony as a dominant nestmate favours behavioural and morphological adaptations to mimic a specific odour. In Polistes social parasites, abdominal tegumental glands are involved in this camouflage strategy. These glands secreting cuticular hydrocarbons are con...

Detection and identification of fungal cryptic species has been facilitated by DNA sequencing. However, the examination of some phenotypic traits is fundamental for the confirmation of genetic results. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry has shown remarkable reliability in the recognition of species-specific phenotypic markers and has already been tested i...

Both recognition and conventional signals are widespread in the animal kingdom. Chemical communication plays a major role in invertebrates, and especially in social insects. In the last decade, observational and experimental evidence has shown the existence of visual quality signals and individual recognition cues in Polistes paper wasps, meaning t...

The honeybee sting challenge is considered a reliable procedure to evaluate the efficacy of specific immunotherapy, but it is difficult and unpractical to perform in clinical practice, because live insects are required. To assess the feasibility and reliability of a challenge test using a micro-syringe, and compared the procedure with sting challen...

Colony cycles are influenced by several biotic and a-biotic environmental factors (climate in general, predators, parasites, pathogens, availability of prey and nesting sites). Nests can be founded by a single female or in association, and colony development can be determined by individual life histories which can, in turn, be influenced by conting...

The general morphology and most important anatomical systems of Hover Wasps are described and discussed. Analytical comparisons illustrate the characteristics of particular body parts in different genera. The description of important and peculiar anatomical structures of adult females and males, mainly connected to reproductive and defensive appara...

This chapter describes the most common behavioural patterns of female and male Hover Wasps. Behaviours are divided into three main groups, depending on their functional categories: elementary behaviour (which ranges from feeding to mating), colony maintenance behaviour (directed towards rearing and defence of immature brood and nest construction) a...

The Hover Wasps (Stenogastrinae) comprise 58 described species in 7 genera which are distributed in the South East Asian tropics, from India to New Guinea. This chapter offers a sketch of their systematics. There follows a brief history of the studies by researchers of these wasps, focusing on the main problems, phylogeny and social evolution of th...

The nests of Hover Wasps are one of the most outstanding aspects of their biology. Nest architecture is usually species-specific and presents general characteristics which differentiate the Stenogastrinae from other social wasps, first on account of the total lack of a peduncle and second for the particular quality of nest material. The chapter des...

This final chapter is divided into two parts. The first section gives a concise picture of sociality in insects and the hypotheses which try to explain the evolution of social behaviour in these organisms. In the second part, I deal with the characteristics of sociality in Hover Wasps and the possible particular route to sociality these wasps have...

This chapter looks at the main aspects of social communication in Hover Wasp colonies according to the social context in which information is transferred. Adult–immature brood communication seems limited in these wasps, while adult–adult interactions are similar to those observed in the primitively eusocial polistines. As in other social insects, t...

Crematogaster scutellaris is a common ant throughout the Mediterranean basin, which occupies a dominant position within competition hierarchies. Previous studies showed a clustered distribution of nests of this species and suggested a polydomous arrangement of colonies. The relationships among different colonies were investigated combining aggressi...

This book represents the culmination of the author’s lifetime work on a single fascinating group of insects, the hover wasps, Stenogastrinae. The author explores the biology of these little-known wasps at the threshold of sociality, presenting an ambitious survey of ideas about their evolution and an assessment of the current standing of controvers...

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most important model organisms and has been a valuable asset to human civilization. However, despite its extensive use in the last 9,000 y, the existence of a seasonal cycle outside human-made environments has not yet been described. We demonstrate the role of social wasps as vector and natural reservoir of S....

The sting is the most effective defense of social Hymenoptera against vertebrate predators but in the hover wasps (subfamily Stenogastrinae) it is scarcely used. In these wasps a quite enlarged Dufour's gland and the extensive use of its secretion in the peculiar rearing of the larvae and defense determined important morphological modifications of...

Sociality is associated with an increased risk of disease transmission and one of the first defense of the insect colonies is represented by antimicrobial secretions. In many eusocial hymenopteran species venom glands represent one of the most important source of antimicrobial substances. It is known that in highly eusocial species the venom is spr...

Treatment with aqueous and aluminum hydroxide (Al[OH](3))-adsorbed purified honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom (HBV) preparations can reduce the incidence of side effects associated with venom immunotherapy. The aim of the present study was to assess these purified HBV immunotherapy preparations in situ. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mas...

Insect social life is governed by chemicals. A great number of studies have demonstrated that the blend of hydrocarbons present on the cuticle (CHCs) plays a pivotal role in intra- and inter-specific communication. It is not surprising, therefore, that social parasites, specialized in exploiting the costly parental care provided by host workers, ex...