Zethus (Zethus) pilosus Zavattari, 1912 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae) from Southern Brazil: description of the female, the male genitalia, its nest and notes on biology

Abstract

Zethus is the largest vespid genus and, despite being very diverse in the Neotropical region, little is known about its biology and many species are known from only one sex. Zethini are centered in one of the controversies involving Vespidae phylogeny; increased knowledge of terminals will allow for more precise analyses, because some phylogenetically informative characters are observed in only one sex and others can be extracted from nests. With this in mind, complementary knowledge on Zethus pilosus is presented: the description of the female, of the male genitalia, of the nest and notes in its biology. Additional key features in the pronotum for identification of this species are provided. Nests were founded between December and April, presenting construction of partitions out of a combination of mud, sand, vegetable matter and insect parts. Development from egg to adult lasted an average of 39 days.

The unknown house of an old neighbor: the nest of Zethus (Zethoides) nodosus Zavattari (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

“…Nests of Zethus Fabricius, 1804 are still poorly known. Despite its great diversity, very few nests have been found and described, with only 15 recorded at the time of the revision of the genus (Bohart & Stange, 1965) and a few later additions being made (Stange, 1969;Garcete-Barrett & Klassen Dück, 2010;Cooper, 2014Cooper, , 2016Lopes et al, 2019Lopes et al, , 2021. Among Zethus species, Z. miniatus is perhaps the most widely known.…”