DOI: 10.5061/dryad.nv1fd
title: Data from: Specialists and generalists coexist within a population of spider-hunting mud dauber wasps

description: Individual foraging specialization describes the phenomenon where
 conspecifics within a population of generalists exhibit differences in
 foraging behavior, each specializing on different prey types. Individual
 specialization is widespread in animals, yet is understudied in
 invertebrates, despite potential impacts to food web and population
 dynamics. Sceliphron caementarium (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) is an excellent
 system to examine individual specialization. Females of these mud-dauber
 wasps capture and paralyze spiders which they store in mud nests to
 provision their offspring. Individuals may make hundreds of prey choices
 in their short lifespan and fully intact prey items can be easily
 excavated from their mud nests, where each distinct nest cell represents a
 discrete foraging bout. Using data collected from a single population of
 S. caementarium (where all individuals had access to the same resources),
 we found evidence of strong individual specialization; individuals
 utilized different resources (with respect to prey taxa, prey ecological
 guild, and prey size) to provision their nests. The extent of individual
 specialization differed widely within the population with some females
 displaying extreme specialization (taking only prey from a single species)
 while others were generalists (taking prey from up to six spider
 families). We also found evidence of temporal consistency in individual
 specialization over multiple foraging events. We discuss these findings
 broadly in the context of search images, responses to changing prey
 availability, and intraspecific competition pressure.
description: Foraging data for
 individual waspsEach individual female
 wasp is indicated by a unique “Wasp ID”. Because each nest is made up of
 multiple cells, each prey item is labeled with a “Cell number”. These cell
 numbers do not indicate anything about the age of the nest cell or the
 order of nest provisioning (see Methods in Powell and Taylor 2017). The
 Excel file includes three sheets. The first sheet includes data from one
 randomly-selected nest cell from each wasp in the study (with each cell
 containing between 5 and 22 prey items). The second sheet includes data
 for a second analysis conducted on the individual wasps that had at least
 three intact cells in their nest. If a wasp nest contained more than three
 cells, only three cells were selected (at random) for inclusion. Because
 only three nest cells were analyzed from each wasp in our study, data from
 additional cells (unanalyzed cells) are listed in the third sheet,
 “Unanalyzed cells”. Missing data (i.e., blank spaces in the data sheet)
 indicate that spider prey were unable to be measured or identified to the
 genus level. This occurred for one of two reasons. Most commonly, this was
 because the specimen was partially eaten by the feeding wasp larva.
 Alternatively, some juvenile specimens were unable to be identified to the
 genus level because they lacked the mature genitalia needed for accurate
 identification. All specimens from this study are deposited in the Florida
 State Collection of Arthropods (Gainesville, FL.) Please contact Erin
 Powell (epow209@aucklanduni.ac.nz), for more information regarding
 specific analyses discussed in the corresponding
 manuscript.Powell_Taylor_BehEco_Dryad.xlsx