A developmental test of the dominance-nutrition hypothesis: linking adult feeding, aggression, and reproductive potential in the paperwasp Mischocyttarus mastigophorus Y. MOLINA 1 and S. O’DONNELL Animal Behavior Program, Department of Psychology, Box 351525, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA Received 14 November 2007, accepted 21 April 2008 Because adult females of primitively eusocial insects are plastic in their social roles, they are excellent models for assessing factors that affect fecundity and its relationship with dominance. Previous cross-sectional studies led to the dominance-nutrition hypothesis, which posits that the nutritional costs and benefits of task performance determine ovary develop- ment, and thereby affect female’s dominance status. In this study, we inves- tigate developmental predictions of the dominance-nutrition hypothesis in the paper wasp Mischocyttarus mastigophorus. Females were relatively inac- tive when young, and showed limited ovary development until over 2 weeks of adult age. As females aged, inter-individual variance in rates of behavior and in oocyte development increased significantly. As predicted by the domi- nance-nutrition model, females developed along diverging pathways, which were associated with worker-like and queen-like behavior and physiology. Individuals differed in their rates of nutritionally favorable (taking food from foragers) and nutritionally expensive (flying from the nest to forage) behav- ior. High rates of taking food from foragers were correlated with accelerat- ed onset of giving social aggression (chases/bites) and with increased ovary development. Conversely, receiving aggression typically preceded the onset of foraging, and high rates of receiving aggression were positively associated with earlier onset of foraging. Our data do not support part of the domi- nance-nutrition model: ovary development did not precede the onset of ele- vated aggression. Variation in ovary development did not correlate positively with rates of giving aggression for young females. Our data implicate adult nutrition as an important factor for behavioral and physiological develop- ment, including the developmental onset of social aggression. KEY WORDS: age polyethism, aggression, nutrition, social dominance, divi- sion of labor, development. 1 Corresponding author: Yamile Molina, Tel: (206) 543-5325, Fax: (206) 685-3157 (E-mail: ymolina@u.washington.edu). Ethology Ecology & Evolution 20: 125-139, 2008