Taxonomy, bionomics, and ecology of a new species of the blue mud-dauber wasp genus Chalybion from Sulawesi (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)

Abstract

A new species of the blue mud‐dauber genus Chalybion, C. sulawesii sp. n., is described from Sulawesi (Indonesia). The new species belongs in the C. fabricator species group, which up to now consisted of five rarely collected species. An identification key to the females of all species of the group is provided. Males are not keyed, because only a single male of the group, belonging to C. malignum, is known in addition to C. sulawesii. The last instar larva of C. sulawesii is described, although not all relevant characters could be reliably studied. We could show that the larva of the new species shows most of the relevant characters of the Sceliphrini, but differs from the larvae of other Sceliphrini studied yet in two characters. The majority of over 600 specimens of the new species have been reared from artificial trap nests, set up in different habitats and at different heights in the Lore Lindu National Park, Sulawesi. Of the 812 nests found, 606 provided adults, 64 provided pupae, and 40 provided larvae. 113 were just provisioned. The nesting activity of C. sulawesii showed a clear seasonality and was strongly influenced by the flowering plant diversity. Female activities were also significantly higher in lower strata. We assume that all three ecological factors studied influence the nesting activity of C. sulawesii via the spider prey density. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Larvae and Nests of Six Aculeate Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) Nesting in Reed Galls Induced by Lipara spp. (Diptera: Chloropidae) with a Review of Species Recorded

“…fenestratus by the previous authors despite we prepared all mouthparts separately (see Fig 5P and 5Q for anterior and lateral views of the mouthparts). We also confirmed two new hosts of this bee fly, which was previously recorded as a parasitoid of digger wasps of the genera Ammophila and Sphex [ 39 , 40 ]. In conclusion, using an extensive dataset of experimentally hatched reed galls, we elucidated the nesting biology and ecology, and provide the descriptions of larvae of aculeate hymenopterans nesting in reed galls and their parasitoids.…”

The first data on the nesting biology of the invasive blue nest-renting wasp, Chalybion turanicum (Gussakovskij, 1935) (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae, Sceliphrinae) in the Crimea

“…tibiale (Gess and Gess 2014), or exclusively for Araneidae: Ch. sulawesii Ohl, 2011 (Ohl andHöhn 2011) and Ch. malignum (Kohl, 1906) (Pham and Dang 2017).…”

“…The Chalybion species that are studied bionomically vary in nesting cavity preference, prey composition, number of generations per year, and other bionomical features, which could be important, for instance, the ability to colonize new territories. Thus, Chalybion spinolae (Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1845) nests in vertical banks and hunts exclusively for Black Widow spiders (the genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805; Theridiidae) and therefore is not synanthropic (Gess et al 1982, Nel et al 2014, while some other species are known to nest exclusively in hollow stems of trap-nests and to hunt for Araneidae spiders (Ohl andHöhn 2011, Pham andDang 2017). Other species hunt for various spiders with the preference to the families Araneidae or Theridiidae.…”