Nest Density of some Social Wasp Species in Cerrado Vegetation of Central Brazil (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Some species of wasps demonstrate plasticity with diverse nesting habits according to the environmental conditions and substrates used for building the nests, while others are restricted to habitats with specific conditions and may exhibit some degree of fide-lity. The aim of this study was to estimate species richness and abundance of nests of Polistini and Epiponini wasps in four landscape units in the Pantanal of Poconé, Retiro Novo Farm, southwestern Mato Grosso state, Brazil. The nests of social wasps were sampled in four plant physiognomies locally known as cambarazal, landizal, pombeiral and campo limpo from August 25, 2011 to April 11, 2012, being recorded 308 nests of eight genera and 14 species of social wasps. The highest number of nests belongs to Polybia ruficeps xanthops (32.69%), Poly. sericea (24.27%) and Synoeca surinama (15.21%). The highest species richness was recorded in cambarazal and the highest abundance of nests in pombeiral, while campo limpo showed the lowest richness and abundance of nests. The nests of S. surinama were associated with cambarazal and landizal (IndVal = 93.3, P = 0.001), while the nests of Poly. ruficeps xanthops and Poly. chrysothorax were associated with cambarazal, landizal and pombeiral (IndVal = 97, P = 0.001). There was lower abundance and lower species richness of wasps in campo limpo. These results demonstrate that the maintenance of forest environments in the Pantanal is essential for the establishment and maintenance of social wasp nests.

Section: Research Article -Waspsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of the Nests of Social Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) in the Northern Pantanal, Brazil

Almeida¹,

Andena²,

Silva³

2014

“…Further, vegetation provides nesting substrate , carbohydrate resources (Santos et al, 1998), and materials for nest construction such as plant fibers (Rodrigues & Machado, 1982;Marques & Carvalho, 1993), and prey foraging area (Santos et al, 1998). Some wasp species only nest under certain structural conditions (e.g., open or closed physiognomies), and depend on specific plant morphological parameters (e.g., leaf shape and size, trunk diameter, presence of spines) (Henriques et al, 1992, Santos & Gobbi, 1998Cruz et al, 2006).…”

Section: Polistes Ferreri Apoica Pallensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social wasp guild (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) visiting flowers in two of the phytophysiognomic formations: Riparian Forest and campos rupestres

Clemente¹,

Vieira²,

Campos³

et al. 2017

Social wasps are part of the floral visitor guild. In this study, we investigated the distribution of flower-visiting wasp species in two phytophysiognomies in the State Park of Ibitipoca, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We inspected flowering plants with visiting wasps along a 1 km transect in riparian forest and another 1 km transect in campos rupestres over the course of one year, for a total sampling effort of 240 hours. We found a total of 103 individuals with 15 species distributed among 7 genera, the most common belonging to the Erythroxylaceae (n = 10) and Asteraceae (n = 10) families. Asteraceae had the highest abundance (n = 55). The diversity and evenness of these insects was higher in riparian forest (H '= 0.78 and J' = 0.75) than in campos rupestres (H '= 0.30, J' = 0.39). All species visited flowers of 19 plant species in riparian forest, and eight wasp species visited 11 plant species in campos rupestres. These Polistinae acted as regular floral visitors, thus, conservation programs in these areas may be relevant for the maintenance of social wasp diversity.

“…Environments with a greater availability of resources (food or nesting sites) have lower levels of species competition (Markwell et al, 1993;Harris et al, 1994), mainly among wasps, where the competition for floral resources is rare (De Souza et al, 2010). The lower competition, or lack thereof, contributes to the increase in species coexistence and local biodiversity (Henriques et al, 1992;Bastolla et al, 2009). Although, the social interaction between wasps and flowers in the Riparian Forest is more generalist that in the Rocky Grassland, most wasp species of both networks established an association with only one plant species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, some wasp species build their nests only under specific structural conditions of vegetation (Sinzato et al, 2011), which can be open or closed landscapes, as well as morphological conditions of the plant species; the size and shape of leaves, stem diameter and/or the presence of thorns (Henriques et al, 1992;Cruz et al, 2006). Thus, the complexity of the vegetation is determinant for the composition and community structure of social wasps and its fundamental and realized niche Carvalho et al, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Wasp-Flower Visiting Guild Interactions in Less Structurally Complex Habitats are More Susceptible to Local Extinction

Clemente¹,

Lange²,

Dáttilo³

et al. 2013

Several studies have shown that habitat complexity is an important factor for the dynamic and stability of interacting species. However, it is not known how the habitat complexity may affect the tolerance of wasp-flower interactions to local extinction. Based on this perspective, in this study, we aimed to compare the tolerance of wasp flower visiting guild to local extinction in two different types of vegetation (Riparian Forest and Rocky Grassland). Through observations made during one year, we verified that the structure of the plant-wasp interaction network differed between the two areas, as well as that the robustness to cumulative extinctions had different patterns. The simulations of cumulative removal of species showed that the network in the Riparian Forest is more robust against the removal of both plants and wasps than that network in Rocky Grassland, since their extinction curves declined more slowly. Therefore, in our study area, we demonstrate that social wasp-plant interactions in areas with lower structural complexity are less tolerant to extinction (i.e. more fragile). We therefore suggest that studies that aim at biodiversity conservation should focus not only in areas where diversity is high, but also in area with lower species richness for the conservation of ecological roles within communities.