The process of dying after reproduction is extremely rare among mammals, but it does not mean that it’s not common in nature. Many different plants, vegetables, basically all plants that only live for one year use this way of reproduction. The process is called semelparity, or suicidal reproduction is also common among some frogs, lizards, as well as insects.
The male representatives of social wasps die after mating because they are not welcome in the colony anymore. They fulfilled their main purpose. The male wasps are less likely to survive on their own, as they have reduced organs. So after a few hours after mating, they can get lost and soon die.
The male wasps don’t take part in the life of the colony. They develop from unfertilized eggs, which means that they are haploid. The queen usually lays male eggs. Rarely worker wasps lay male eggs as well.
Role of male wasps in reproduction
Male wasps play a key role in reproduction. The reproduction of wasps can look differently for social and solitary wasps. Social wasps mate to start a new colony, as the queen builds a new nest in spring.
Mating for social wasps usually starts late in the season. After that, the queen wasp finds a place where she can hibernate and survive the winter.
All male social wasps die soon after mating.
When the weather gets warmer, the queen wakes up with fertilized eggs. Then she finds a place for a new nest and there she lays her eggs. The worker wasps help to feed the larvae and take care of building the nest.
As the reproduction time arises in late summer more queens and male wasps develop. This is a typical reproduction cycle, which repeats every year.
Solitary wasps have different reproduction processes compared to social wasps. They build small nests in the ground or close to it, where they can bring food and take care of their eggs. Instead of laying hundreds of eggs as social wasps do, solitary wasps only have a few.
These wasps are far more distributed in a larger area what makes it harder to find a mating partner and reproduce. Therefore the male solitary wasps need to survive for a longer period to ensure this process can be done.
Male solitary wasps live longer.
The parasitoid wasps (also solitary) use another way of taking care of their eggs. After mating with a male wasp, the female wasp goes on to find the host for her eggs. The host is usually another insect or even a spider. The female wasp stings the host insect to paralyze it, then bury it in the ground, and lay eggs on top of paralyzed insect.
The insect stays alive until the eggs hatch. After that, the larvae get into the host and slowly eat it from the inside. The larvae keep the insect alive to eat it later. The wasp eats its host until it fully develops to then fly out of the hole in the ground as a full-grown wasp. And then the reproduction cycle repeats.
Can male wasps live on their own?
As mentioned before, in social wasps, males take no part in the colony. They have reduced organs, which makes it hard for them to take care of themselves.
That’s why they usually die after mating. Even with normal organs, it would be hard to survive as mating starts in the late fall, meaning the weather is changing and not enough food is available.
Solitary wasps also need nests. Of course, they are smaller compared to the social wasp nest, but still, they need a place where they can take care of their eggs. Nevertheless, the male wasps are capable to survive on their own, as the mating process takes some days and weeks while the males have to be fit.
They can mate as long as they can because they are designed to have several partners. However, male solitary wasps still live less than female wasps.
Why do male wasps die after mating?
The main reason why male wasps die after mating is because they are useless for the colony. Their main function is to fertilize the queen, and when it’s done, male wasps are basically worthless.
Male social wasps are useless for the colony after mating.
They don’t do anything as a part of the colony. so after mating, they just go into the wilderness. Usually, mate wasps have underdeveloped organs, which negatively impact their further survival. This means that they will easily get lost, starve to death, or dehydrate.
This is not the case for solitary wasps though. They are more equipped to be able to have several partners throughout their lives. Also, the process of mating is longer for solitary wasps and they don’t die right after that.
Male solitary wasps need to live longer to mate.
An interesting example that differs from what I mentioned above, is about fig wasps. Male representatives of these wasps are very fragile and limited. They are wingless and don’t have the ability to see anything. Their main purpose is mating.
They mature earlier than female wasps. Then they chew a hole in the syconium of the fig, where female wasps are. Through this little hole, the males inseminate the female wasps. After that, they make the hole bigger, to support the female wasps.
When they complete their purpose, they die, while the syconium matures and develops seeds that contain fruit. Male fig wasps are definitely a great example of wasps dying right after mating.
Do males who reproduced die even earlier?
The reason male wasps die even earlier after they reproduced is more likely because they used some energy in the reproduction process. Like all drones, they do lack food and water but their energy levels are even more depleted.
Furthermore, wasps reproduce in late fall when the weather is getting colder and the sources of food reduce. This means bad conditions for male wasps to survive for a long time. Reproduced wasps will basically die after a few hours, as they are not equipped for these conditions and fatigued.
However, after male wasps fulfill their function, the colony doesn’t need them anymore, so they just need to survive on their own. How long they will live after mating depends solely on conditions and the environment.
