Comunidade de vespas sociais (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) em diferentes gradientes altitudinais no sul do estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

ResumoVários estudos descreveram alterações na riqueza e abundância de grupos de insetos ao longo dos gradientes altitudinais, contudo há poucas informações para as vespas sociais (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). O presente trabalho avaliou a inluência da altitude sobre a diversidade desses insetos em fragmentos de lorestas estacionais semideciduais em clima tropical de altitude. O estudo foi conduzido em três cotas altimétricas distintas na região sul do estado de Minas Gerais, entre 997 e 2080 m. Foram realizados 24 dias de amostragem durante dez meses por meio de coleta ativa. Foram registradas 34 espécies distribuídas em 11 gêneros, a Cota 01 registrou 27, a Cota 02 registrou 19 espécies e a Cota 03 foram registradas 11 espécies. O gênero mais frequente na área de estudo foi Polybia. O trabalho mostra que em áreas de clima tropical de altitude acima de 1800 m a diversidade diminui consideravelmente, e aumenta o número de espécies que nidiicam por enxameamento e constroem ninhos com invólucro protetor.Palavras-chave: Biogeograia; Fragmentos lorestais; Insetos; Polistinae Abstract Social wasp communities (Hymenoptera Vespidae) at diferent altitudinal levels in southern MinasGerais, Brazil. Various studies have described changes in richness and abundance of insect groups along altitudinal gradients, but there is little information about social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) in this regard. This study evaluated the inluence of altitude on the diversity of these insects in fragments of semideciduous forest in a tropical altitude climate. Three diferent elevations in southern Minas Gerais, from 997 to 2080 meters, were studied. Sampling was carried out on 24 days in a ten-month period by active collection. A total of 34 species were found, distributed in 11 genera. At Level 01, 27 species were recorded, and at Level 02, there were 19 species, while Level 03 showed 11 species. The most frequent genus in the sudy area was Polybia, This study showed that in high-altitude tropical climate areas above 1800 meters, diversity decreases substantially and that the number of species that nest by swarming and build nests with protective cover increases.

Social wasp richness and species distributions among ecosystem types in Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…The high-altitude field ecosystem in Souza et al (2015a) is situated above 1,600 meters, and at this elevation abiotic factors may be quite different from those at other, lower-altitude sites. For example, low temperatures, among other factors, may negatively affect social wasp richness, as found in other studies of high-altitude fields (Albuquerque et al, 2015). There is also a paucity of studies in this ecosystem type (only one), as well as in mixed forest, which was poorly sampled in terms of effort compared to the study in highaltitude fields (Souza et al, 2015a).…”

Social wasps fauna (Vespidae) of semideciduous seasonal forest in southern Brazil

“…These results are similar to those observed in the present study, whose sampled islands have a history of anthropic occupation, and are still in the process of regeneration [36] . Studies with social wasps carried out on similar phytophysiognomies, registered a greater number of species [8,15,17,27] . Greater social wasps richness seems to be related to environments with greater vegetation structural complexity, where there is greater food resources availability, as well as better temperature and air humidity conditions, which favors the establishment and survival of these insects [34,37] .…”

“…In this state, the semideciduous seasonal forest, phytophysiognomy of the Atlantic Forest domain [11] , occurs in the West, Northwest and North, being characterized by leaves loss of about 50% of the tree species in the winter period. In Brazil, the literature reports social wasps inventories in seasonal semideciduous forests in different states such as: São Paulo [12,13,14] , Minas Gerais [8,15,16,17] and Mato Grosso do Sul [18] . To contribute to the knowledge about this type of forest formation, the present work aimed to present the social wasps inventory from the semideciduous forest of the Paraná State, inserted in an integral conservation unit, the Ilha Grande National Park.…”

Evaluating the efficiency of different sampling methods to survey social wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae) in an anthropized environment

“…Since the traps were placed inside Atlantic Forest fragments, the occurrence of this taxon may indicate a good conservation status of this area (Souza et al, 2010). Despite occurring in different biomas and altitudes (Souza et al, 2010, Albuquerque et al, 2015, P. fastidiosuscula is particularly dominant above 1,500 meters high (Souza et al, 2015).…”