Many social species show variation in their social structure in response to different environmental conditions. For example, colonies of the yellowjacket wasp are typically headed by a single reproductive queen and survive for only a single season. However, in warmer climates, colonies sometimes persist for multiple years and can grow to extremely large size. We used genetic markers to understand patterns of reproduction and recruitment within these perennial colonies. We genotyped workers, pre-reproductive queens, and males from perennial colonies in the southeastern United States at 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci and one mitochondrial DNA locus. We found that from perennial nests were produced by multiple reproductives, in contrast to typical annual colonies. Relatedness of nestmates from perennial colonies was significantly lower than relatedness of nestmates from annual colonies. Our analyses of mitochondrial DNA indicated that most perennial colonies represented semiclosed systems whereby all individuals belonged to a single matriline despite the presence of multiple reproductive females. However, new queens recruited into perennial colonies apparently mated with non-nestmate males. Notably, perennial and annual colonies did not show significant genetic differences, supporting the hypothesis that perennial colony formation represents an instance of social plasticity. Overall, our results indicate that perennial colonies show substantial changes to their social biology compared to typical annual colonies and demonstrate variation in social behaviors in highly social species.
