Occurrence and nesting behavior of social wasps in an anthropized environment

Abstract

Some effort had been made concerning the social biodiversity of wasps in Brazil; however, few approaches have been made relating to how this taxa have adapted their nesting behavior to anthropic mixed environments. Thus, the present work aimed to survey the occurrence of social wasps in an anthropic area and their relationship with different types of nesting substrates. Increasing the knowledge of social wasps in anthropic areas would allow us to develop strategies for their conservation and management. Twenty long-term surveys were made at the Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto campus, São Paulo State. During the searches, we collected information about wasp species and nesting substrate. A total of 20 species of 8 genera were identified, and a total of 431 active colonies were registered. Epiponini was the richest in terms of species richness. On the other hand, Mischocyttarini was represented by more active colonies. Mischocyttarus cerberus had a remarkably greater number of colonies, which agreed with the idea of preference of anthropic environments by independent founding wasps. Nesting behavior was associated with eight substrate categories. We observed that some species might express certain plasticity regarding their nesting substrate usage, whereas some expressed certain specificity. Facing the increase in the actual urbanization process and, consequently, habitat loss, this type of study might contribute towards better understanding how these insects are affected by altered environment.

Juvenile hormone affects age polyethism, ovarian status and cuticular hydrocarbon profile in workers of the waspPolybia occidentalis

“…This study was conducted in the Laboratório de Comportamento e Ecologia de Insetos Sociais at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto Campus (21°09′50.7″S, 47°51′32.1″W) between October 2016 and May 2017. Colonies of P. occidentalis are relatively common in this area (da Silva et al, 2019). Combs containing pupae were removed from field colonies and kept inside plastic boxes in the laboratory to serve as a stock for newly emerged individuals.…”

Nesting Ecology of Polistes Species (hymenoptera, Vespidae) in Urban Areas of South-western Iberian Peninsula

“…One of the advantages of built nests in urban environments is the reduction of the competence for nesting sites (da Silva et al, 2019). P. dominula and P. gallicus are the only synanthropic wasps species in the Iberian Peninsula (Gayubo & Torres, 1990) and the observed differences in nest abundance between these species in this study may be related with their biological traits.…”

“…In fact, most of the nests built on metallic tubes were located during the warmest months. According with da Silva et al (2019) the results might have been affected by each nesting substrate type availability rate in the area rather than preference.…”

Assemblages of Social Wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) in the Veredas of Central Brazil

“…Given their abundance and ecological importance, social wasps have been and continue to be the subject of ecological studies in different regions and environments (Diniz & Kitayama, 1998;Souza & Prezoto, 2006;Silva et al, 2011;Da Silva et al, 2019;Clemente et al, 2020;Ferreira et al, 2020). In Brazil, these environments include the Cerrado savanna (Souza et al, 2012;Souza et al, 2020;Vicente et al, 2020), Atlantic Forest (Grandinete & Noll, 2013;Togni et al, 2014;Ribeiro et al, 2019;Souza et al, 2021), the semi-arid Northeast (Santos et al, 2020), the Amazon Forest (Silveira, 2002;Silveira et al, 2012;Somavilla & Oliveira, 2017;Graça & Somavilla, 2018;Gomes et al, 2020), and the Pantanal wetlands of Mato Grosso (Almeida et al, 2014).…”