Note on predation of the brood of Mischocyttarus injucundus (de Saussure) by another social wasp in Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, with new records of species for the Ferreira Penna Research Station (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae)
“…The Brazilian fauna is composed of 22 genera of 304 species of registered social wasps, of which 104 occur exclusively in Brazilian territory (Silveira et al, 2016). Three tribes occur in Brazil: Mischocyttarini (Mischocyttarus), known, so new records may contribute to the understanding of species diversity and richness in an area (De Souza et al, 2017;Brügger et al, 2019b;Somavilla et al, 2019).…”
Social wasps play an important role in communities, whether in natural or agricultural ecosystems, performing pollination and/or predation on other organisms, especially caterpillars, which reveals their potential for biological control. We register species of predatory wasps found in a eucalypt reforested area compared with a native rainforest. Five species of social wasps were found: Agelaia myrmecophila (Ducke), Mischocyttarus punctatus (Ducke), Polistes carnifex (Fabricius), Polybia liliacea (Fabricius), and Polybia striata (Fabricius), with higher numbers in the eucalypt monoculture than in the Atlantic rainforest, suggesting no negative impact of the monoculture on the population of that natural enemies.
“…The Brazilian fauna is composed of 22 genera of 304 species of registered social wasps, of which 104 occur exclusively in Brazilian territory (Silveira et al, 2016). Three tribes occur in Brazil: Mischocyttarini (Mischocyttarus), known, so new records may contribute to the understanding of species diversity and richness in an area (De Souza et al, 2017;Brügger et al, 2019b;Somavilla et al, 2019).…”
Social wasps play an important role in communities, whether in natural or agricultural ecosystems, performing pollination and/or predation on other organisms, especially caterpillars, which reveals their potential for biological control. We register species of predatory wasps found in a eucalypt reforested area compared with a native rainforest. Five species of social wasps were found: Agelaia myrmecophila (Ducke), Mischocyttarus punctatus (Ducke), Polistes carnifex (Fabricius), Polybia liliacea (Fabricius), and Polybia striata (Fabricius), with higher numbers in the eucalypt monoculture than in the Atlantic rainforest, suggesting no negative impact of the monoculture on the population of that natural enemies.
“…Regarding plantbased foods, wasps can feed on fruit pulp (Brügger et al 2017), floral nectar (Clemente et al 2012), and extrafloral nectar (Oliveira et al 2023a). As for animal-based foods, wasps commonly feed on invertebrates, especially other insects such as Diptera (Gomes et al 2007), Mantodea (Crispim et al 2023), Orthoptera (Garcia et al 2022), Hemiptera (Gobbi & Machado 1985), Blattodea, Dermaptera, Neuroptera (Oliveira et al 2010), beetle larvae (Alves-Silva et al 2013;Alves-Silva & Del-Claro 2016), and Lepidoptera (Prezoto et al 2019;Oliveira et al 2023b;Oliveira & Souza 2023), and even other social wasps (Silveira et al 2016).…”
Social wasps are commonly considered generalists in their feeding habits, but there are genera with little information regarding their diet, such as Mischocyttarus de Saussure, 1853 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), the most species-rich wasp genus in the world. The objective of this study is to report Mischocyttarus rotundicollis (Cameron, 1912) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) feeding on a spider in the southeastern region of Brazil, aiming to expand information about its feeding behavior. The record occurred occasionally on September 23, 2023, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the ecotone region between the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado. The feeding of a species from the Araneidae family occurred in its web, and the individual of M. rotundicollis used the tarsi of its legs to cling to the silk threads of the web, which could suggest a specialization for the exploitation of this food resource. Our record provides further information on the feeding behavior and diet of M. rotundicollis and presents the first information on spider feeding by this species. Further studies are suggested to evaluate this possible hypothesis of specialization of the genus for foraging in spider webs.
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