Almost Royal, not exactly as good as a queen! Published on Behavioural ecology and Sociobiology

Together with colleagues from University of Florence and University Pierre et Marie Curie, we just published "Almost royal: incomplete suppression of host worker ovarian development by a social parasite wasp" . In this paper we show that workers of a paper wasp species react to the presence of a social parasite by increasing their fertility, thus being ready to start their own reproduction.

"Cini A, Nieri R, Dapporto L, Monnin T, Cervo R (2014) Almost royal: incomplete suppression of host worker ovarian development by a social parasite wasp. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68:467-475