Foraging patterns in a nocturnal swarm-founding wasp, Apoica flavissima van der Vecht (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Nascimento, Fábio Santos do; Tannure-Nascimento, Ivelize C.

doi:10.1590/s1519-566x2005000200005

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…When light levels have risen (morning) or fallen (evening) to precisely the right intensity, Megalopta emerges to forage (Warrant et al, 2004;Kelber et al, 2006). The nocturnal wasp Apoica also departs its nest at a specific time in the evening -in fact, hundreds of wasps depart en masse -and this too is almost certainly dependent on the light level (Hunt et al, 1995;Nascimento and Tannure-Nascimento, 2005). Although experimental evidence is lacking, the ocelli could play an important role in the timing of foraging in Apoica and Megalopta.…”

Section: Possible Roles For Nocturnal Ocelli In Rainforest Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocellar optics in nocturnal and diurnal bees and wasps

Warrant

Kelber

Wallén

et al. 2006

Arthropod Structure & Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Possible Roles For Nocturnal Ocelli In Rainforest Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocellar optics in nocturnal and diurnal bees and wasps

Warrant

Kelber

Wallén

et al. 2006

Arthropod Structure & Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Unfortunately we do not have physiological data of Polybia species, but such a high temperature will generally shorten the developmental period of brood. In addition, higher temperatures by extra-combs may infl uence the performance of adults under the cool environment, since the fl ight activity of wasps is closely related to the thermal environment (Heinrich 1984, Lima & Prezoto 2003, Nascimento & Nascimento 2005.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promotion of thermoregulatory insulation in nests of neotropical wasps by building extra-combs with empty cells

Hozumi¹,

Kudô²,

Zucchi³

2008

Neotrop. entomol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neotropical Entomology 37(2): 159-166 (2008) Promoção de Isolamento Térmico em Ninhos de Vespas Neotropicais pela Construção de Favos com Células Vazias RESUMO -Examinou-se a hipótese de que os favos vazios dos ninhos de Polybia occidentalis Olivier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) atuam como isolamento térmico dos elementos internos da colônia. Para avaliar essa hipótese dois tipos de medidas de temperatura foram tomadas: 1) com o favo externo intacto (Controle) e 2) removido (Tratamento), usando um ninho grande e um ninho menor. As temperaturas diárias no ninho grande (parte externa T n1 ; parte interna T n2 ), no Controle, foram 0,6°C (T n1 ) e 1,2°C (T n2 ) mais baixas que aquelas do Tratamento, devido à temperatura ambiente (T a ) mais alta durante todo o período avaliado. Entretanto, a temperatura excedente (T n -T a ) no Controle foi mais alta que no Tratamento. O valor foi 0,7°C mais alto em T n1 e 0,1°C em T n2 . No ninho menor, a temperatura excedente na parte externa foi semelhante entre os experimentos, e na parte interna a temperatura do Controle foi inferior à do Tratamento. A fl utuação térmica nos ninhos foi menor no Controle que no Tratamento, tanto na parte externa quanto interna dos favos. Conclui-se que o favo sem uso é ecologicamente muito importante para criar ou proteger a cria das alterações extremas de temperatura ambiente no inverno, uma vez que ele auxilia na manutenção de temperatura alta no ninho e também no decréscimo da fl utuação de temperatura ao redor dos favos de cria. Além disso, essas temperaturas mais altas infl uenciam as atividades dos adultos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Polistinae, Polybia occidentalis, termoregulação, invernoABSTRACT -We examined the hypotheses that the empty combs of Polybia occidentalis Olivier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) nest insulate the inside of the nest. To examine this hypotheses, two kinds of temperature measurements were carried out: 1) with the outer comb of the nest intact (Control) and 2) removed (Treatment), using a large and a small nest. In the large nest, the daily nest temperatures (outer part, T n1 ; inner part, T n2 ) in Control were lower by 0.6°C (T n1 ) and 1.2°C (T n2 ) than those in Treatment, because of a higher ambient temperature (T a ) throughout temperature assessment in Treatment. However, the excess temperature (T n T a ) in Control was higher than that in Treatment. The value was higher by 0.7°C at T n1 and 0.1°C at T n2 . In the small nest, the excess temperature in outer part was similar between experiments, while that in inner part of Control was lower than that of Treatment. The temperature fl uctuation in the nests was lower in the Control than that in Treatment both the outer and inner part of the comb. We conclude that the unused comb is ecologically invaluable for raising and protecting the brood from extreme changes in ambient temperature during the winter period, because it helps not only keeping a higher nest temperature but also decreasing the temperature fl uctuation around the brood combs. In addition, such a high temperature ma...

show abstract

“…Hunt and colleagues (Hunt et al, 1995) found that Apoica forages during the first 4 h of the evening when the moon is new or small, with another small peak of activity just before dawn (due to wasps returning to the nest, possibly because it was too dark to find their way home any earlier). As the moon waxes, Apoica also begins to forage all night (Hunt et al, 1995;Nascimento and Tannure-Nascimento, 2005).…”

Section: Nocturnality In Bees and Waspsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing in the dark: vision and visual behaviour in nocturnal bees and wasps

Warrant

2008

Journal of Experimental Biology

129

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SummaryIn response to the pressures of predation, parasitism and competition for limited resources, several groups of (mainly) tropical bees and wasps have independently evolved a nocturnal lifestyle. Like their day-active (diurnal) relatives, these insects possess apposition compound eyes, a relatively light-insensitive eye design that is best suited to vision in bright light. Despite this, nocturnal bees and wasps are able to forage at night, with many species capable of flying through a dark and complex forest between the nest and a foraging site, a behaviour that relies heavily on vision and is limited by light intensity. In the two beststudied species -the Central American sweat bee Megalopta genalis (Halictidae) and the Indian carpenter bee Xylocopa tranquebarica (Apidae) -learned visual landmarks are used to guide foraging and homing. Their apposition eyes, however, have only around 30 times greater optical sensitivity than the eyes of their closest diurnal relatives, a fact that is apparently inconsistent with their remarkable nocturnal visual abilities. Moreover, signals generated in the photoreceptors, even though amplified by a high transduction gain, are too noisy and slow to transmit significant amounts of information in dim light. How have nocturnal bees and wasps resolved these paradoxes? Even though this question remains to be answered conclusively, a mounting body of theoretical and experimental evidence suggests that the slow and noisy visual signals generated by the photoreceptors are spatially summed by second-order monopolar cells in the lamina, a process that could dramatically improve visual reliability for the coarser and slower features of the visual world at night.

show abstract

Foraging patterns in a nocturnal swarm-founding wasp, Apoica flavissima van der Vecht (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Cited by 16 publications

References 2 publications

Ocellar optics in nocturnal and diurnal bees and wasps

Ocellar optics in nocturnal and diurnal bees and wasps

Promotion of thermoregulatory insulation in nests of neotropical wasps by building extra-combs with empty cells

Seeing in the dark: vision and visual behaviour in nocturnal bees and wasps

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About