Analysis of 105 scats of the maned wolf (Chrysocyon bruchyurus) collected in central Brazil yielded 304 occurrences of food items of which fruits of Solunum lycocarpum, rodents, and birds accounted for 61.5%. By analysis of minimum number of individual animals, rodents and birds were 75% of a total of 156 prey. On the other hand, fruits of S. lycocarpum and armadillos (Dasypus spp.) were the bulk of the total estimated biomass consumption, yielding 63.7% in a total of 73.5 kg. Rodents were mostly captured during the dry season, while miscellaneous fruits were consumed mostly in the wet season. The consumption of S. Iycocarpum fruits and armadillos was aseasonal. Small rodents were taken in about the ranks of abundance in the study area, but S. Iycocarpum fruits were actively searched by maned wolves, for its occurrence is limited to secondary savanna. Prey and fruits typical of savanna ('cerrado') and grassland ('campo') were the bulk of species, occurrences, prey numbers, and biomass consumed. These findings reinforce the importance of conservation of cerrado and campo in central Brazil. Despite maned wolf being a vulnerable species, its feeding habits are opportunistic, and the main reasons for its decline are likely to be habitat destruction and human disturbance.

The observation of two distinct, well-defined oviposition areas in nests of the primitively eusocial wasp Polistes versicolor suggests the presence of multiple egg-layers and territorial behaviors. Electrophoretic analysis of enzyme loci in pupae from 35 colonies revealed an average observed heterozygosity of 0.10 and the existence of private polymorphisms, thereby indicating a low dispersion in this species. No evidence of diploid males was found. Phenotypic segregation analysis revealed the presence of more than one egg-laying female in 15 out of 35 colonies, as well as spatially preferential oviposition in 2 out of 13 nests, with distinct oviposition areas. Genetic relatedness estimates for brood were lower than expected for haplodiploid species under monogynous conditions (r = 0.75 for female broods and r = 0.5 for male) in 4 of those 13 nests, thereby inferring complex sociogenetic structuring in Polistes versicolor colonies.