Parasites represent a significant proportion of the total biomass in natural ecosystems, particularly in insect societies (Hughes et al., 2008). Therefore, they are of great ecoethological significance. Manipulative parasites are known to have the ability to redirect host relationships and extend the range of their habitats (Lefevre et al., 2009). However, little is known about the abundance of parasites and pressures imposed through parasitism. Although our understanding of social behavior has benefited greatly from the use of Polistes wasps (Reeve, 1991), the incidence of parasitism in this group has yet to be elucidated in detail. Studies on parasitism in Polistes wasps have mainly focused on the incidence and probable effects of parasitoids belonging to Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and less common Diptera (Makino, 1985; Yamane, 1996). These ectoparasitoids, which oviposit on cell walls, typically attach to pupal hosts and consume them, after which they pupate and leave. Although the parasitoids of Polistes wasps have received less attention in the last few decades, the abundance and ecological impact of the obligatory endoparasites, Strepsiptera have been investigated at length in paper wasps (de
Microsatellite primers developed for a given species are sometimes useful for another in the same genus and in other genera within the same family, making possible to search for pre-existing suitable primers in the databanks such as GenBank. We examined whether existing primers developed for Polistes could be used for Polistes satan Bequaert. We tested 50 microsatellite primers from three Polistes species and found that six microsatellite loci show polymorphism in size in P. satan. These six loci were highly polymorphic, having four to 15 alleles in P. satan with an expected heterozygosity of 0.525-0.832. These loci can be used to study parameters concerning genetic relatedness such as social interactions in colonies and genetic conflicts of interest among nestmate individuals.
Although most polistine wasp species are found in the Neotropical region, mainly in Brazil, only a very limited number of South American parasitoids or parasites are known to exist. We assessed the frequency of a hymenopterous parasitoid, Pachysomoides sp. (Ichneumonidae, Cryptinae), in the nests of the Brazilian independent‐founding wasp Polistes satan and compared the rates of the parasitization of P. satan by Pachysomoides sp. between the dry (winter) and wet (summer) seasons. Pachysomoides sp. larvae were seen to feed on P. satan pupa and were found in both the upper and lower parts of the host pupal cell (ca. 10 individuals in each host pupal cell). Approximately one‐third of the pupal cells in the P. satan colonies were parasitized in the dry season, whereas there were no parasitized pupal cells in the wet season. Consequently, the rates of parasitization by Pachysomoides sp. were significantly greater during the dry season than during the wet season due to unknown reasons.
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