Social aggression is a pervasive feature of insect societies. In eusocial Hymenoptera, aggression among females can affect task performance and competition over direct reproduction (egg laying); in most species males participate in social interactions relatively rarely. Males of the independent-founding paper wasp Mischocyttarus mastigophorus are exceptional: they are aggressive toward female nestmates, leading us to explore the function of this unusual behavior. We applied social network analyses to data on M. mastigophorus social aggression to quantify sex differences in giving and receiving social aggression. The network analyses supported the pattern of biased male aggression toward female nestmates; females are relatively rarely aggressive to males. We then asked whether male aggression toward females was biased by females’ relative ovary development. Males were more aggressive toward females with better-developed ovaries, opposite to patterns of aggression among females. Because food brought to the colonies is often monopolized by dominant females, we suggest that males direct aggression toward socially dominant females with better-developed ovaries to obtain food. The implications of biased male aggression for female task performance and physiology are unknown.

社会侵略是昆虫社会的普遍特征。在正常社会的膜翅目中，雌性的侵略会影响任务表现和直接繁殖（蛋产）方面的竞争。在大多数物种中，雄性很少参与社会互动。独立创立的黄蜂“ Mistchocyttarus mastigophorus”的雄性很特殊：它们对雌性巢友具有攻击性，使我们探索了这种异常行为的功能。我们将社交网络分析应用于关于M. mastigophorus的数据社会侵略，以量化给予和接受社会侵略中的性别差异。网络分析支持男性对女性巢穴的偏见。女性相对于男性很少有攻击性。然后我们问男性对女性的侵略是否受到女性相对卵巢发育的偏见。雄性对卵巢发达的雌性更具攻击性，这与雌性的侵略模式相反。由于带到殖民地的食物通常由优势女性垄断，因此我们建议男性将侵略指向卵巢发达的具有社会优势的女性以获得食物。男性侵略性对女性任务表现和生理机能的影响尚不清楚。