Hymenoptera: Vespidae Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The diversity of wasps of the family Vespidae from Dumna Nature Park, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh is studied. It consists of 20 species with an additional subspecies belonging to 11 genera under 3 subfamilies. Out of these, 13 species and an additional subspecies are newly recorded here from Madhya Pradesh. The parasitic association of strepsipteran insects are also reported for the first time in the genus Delta. Abbreviations used for the terms: H = Head; M = Mesosoma; OOL = Ocellocular length; POL = Posterior ocellar length; S = Abdominal sterna; T = Abdominal terga.

A taxonomic survey of the vespine wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) was carried out from May, 2014 to October, 2016. During the study, a total of 798 specimens belonging to the subfamily Vespinae were captured representing 5 species under two genera, Vespa tropica, Vespa velutina, Vespa orientalis, Vespa mandarinia and Vespula flaviceps. The three species, Vespa tropica, Vespa orientalis and Vespa mandarinia are for the first time reported from the study area.

- by Muhammad Rasool and +1
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- Hymenoptera: Vespidae

Primer registro de herbario de Manihot rhomboidea subsp. microcarpa (Müll. Arg.) D.J. Rogers y Appan (Euphorbiaceae) para El Salvador, Pág. 7 Nuestro Comité Editorial, Pág. 11 Caracterización morfoagronómica e invertebrados asociados al... more

- by Bioma Ediciones and +1
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- Herpetology, Biodiversity, Herpetofauna, Botanica
- by Marcos Aragão
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- Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Semiárido

A cross-cultural translation of the Vespid Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire (VQLQ) to the Portuguese population (VQLQ-P) was performed, assessing its applicability in wasp and in non-beekeeper bee venom allergic patients. Additionally, we evaluated a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to estimate hymenoptera allergy interference with daily life. Methods. Cross-cultural translation was performed according to recommendations. The final VQLQ-P version, the Expectation of Outcome questionnaire (EoQ), EQ-5D and VAS were applied to wasp (n = 19) and non-beekeeper bee venom allergic patients (n = 30). Results. VQLQ-P significantly correlated with EoQ, (r = 0.76, p < 0.01), EQ-5D (usual activities and anxiety / depression dimensions) and VAS, with a good internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.88) in wasp allergic individuals. VQLQ-P and EoQ correlation was also high (r = 0.67, p < 0.01) in bee allergy. Conclusion. The VQLQ-P is a valuable tool to evaluate quality of life impairment in Portu-guese hymenoptera venom allergic individuals..g. (h.) ouDe elBerinK 6 , a. coiMBra 1

- by L. Delgado
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- Quality of Life Studies, Quality of life, Beekeeping, Allergy

Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial (truly social) wasp found in peninsular India. It is different from the typical
primitively eusocial species in having docile queens that cannot use aggression to maintain reproductive monopoly. Recent
studies using chemical analysis and bioassays indicate that Dufour’s gland is a source of the queen pheromone in this
species. Queens appear to signal their presence to workers through their Dufour’s gland compounds, possibly by applying
them on the nest surface, and this results in suppression of reproduction by workers, resulting in reproductive monopoly
by the queen. The Dufour’s gland was found to contain saturated long chain hydrocarbons, which have recently been
suggested to be the ancestral state of fertility signals in Hymenoptera. The Dufour’s gland composition differed significantly between queens and workers, and was also correlated with the state of ovarian development, varying continuously as a function of ovarian development, thereby advocating the honesty of the queen pheromone. This elucidates the mechanism of maintenance of eusociality through pheromonal queen signalling by the Dufour’s gland compounds.

- by Aniruddha Mitra
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- Animal Behavior, Chemical Ecology, Pheromones, Behavioral Ecology

Four anopheline and nine culicine mosquito species have been reported from Murree Hills. Culex raptor has been recorded for the first time from Pakistan. All other species, Anopheles stephensi, An. maculatus, An. theobaldi, An. fluviatilis, Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Culex fatigans, Cx. vagans, Cx. nilgiricus, Cx. fuscitarsis, Cx. raptor, Culiseta longiareolata and Armigeres obturbans are recorded from new localities like Baroha, Terrat, Ghora Gali, Pindi Point, Kashmir Point and Jhika Gali during 2012-2013. A tentative key for all recorded species has been given. All species have been illustrated with identification characters along with their distribution range in Murree Hills. Main objective of this study was to explore the mosquito fauna of Murree Hills and to determine the distribution of various species during various months of the year.

- by M Qasim Shah
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- Taxonomy, Biodiversity, Identification, Mosquito Taxonomy

Social wasps are broadly distributed in Brazil, and their distribution is closely related to local plant composition. However, only a few studies on the diversity of these insects have been carried out in northeastern Brazil, and in Caatinga Biome the diversity is probably underestimated due to the lack of inventories for the region. Aiming at advancing the knowledge about the wasp fauna, we carried out this study from October 2005 to September 2006 in Ibipeba, northeastern Brazil. We collected 172 wasps of five genera and eight species, and recorded Polybia ruficeps Schrottky, 1902 for the first time in the state of Bahia. The most abundant species was Polybia ignobilis (Haliday, 1836) (n = 69), and the least abundant were Brachygastra lecheguana (Latreille, 1824) (n = 2) and Polistes canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) (n = 2). The present study inventory focused exclusively on the diversity of social wasps in an area of Caatinga, which contributes to advance the local fauna knowledge.

- by Bruno Corrêa Barbosa and +2
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- Ecology, Hymenoptera, Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Social Wasps

Queens of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata appear to maintain reproductive monopoly through pheromone rather than through physical aggression. Upon queen removal, one of the workers (potential queen, PQ) becomes extremely aggressive but drops her aggression immediately upon returning the queen. If the queen is not returned, the PQ gradually drops her aggression and becomes the next queen of the colony. In a previous study, the Dufour’s gland was found to be at least one source of the queen pheromone. Queen-worker classification could be done with 100% accuracy in a discriminant analysis, using the compositions of their respective Dufour’s glands. In a bioassay, the PQ dropped her aggression in response to the queen’s Dufour’s gland macerate, suggesting that the queen’s Dufour’sgland contents mimicked the queen herself. In the present study, we found that the PQ also dropped her aggression in response to the macerate of a foreign queen’s Dufour’s gland. This suggests that the queen signal is perceived across colonies. This also suggests that the Dufour’s gland in R. marginata does not contain information about nestmateship, because queens are attacked when introduced into foreign
colonies, and hence PQ is not expected to reduce her aggression in response to a foreign queen’s signal.The latter conclusion is especially significant because the Dufour’s gland chemicals are adequate to classify individuals correctly not only on the basis of fertility status (queen versus worker) but also
according to their colony membership, using discriminant analysis. This leads to the additional conclusion (and precaution) that the ability to statistically discriminate organisms using their chemical profiles does not necessarily imply that the organisms themselves can make such discrimination.

- by Maximilian Chaoulideer and +2
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- Animal Behavior, Chemical Ecology, Social insects, Pheromones

The ‘lived-experience’ of a wasp sting in Samoa, arguably by the vespid, Polistes olivaceus (DeGeer) is described. It is a phenomenological anecdotal account based on a self-reported single, convenience observation, described in popular literary style for the leisure reading (largely because of identification limitations) of our common-interest community. The painful polistine sting symptomatology is compared and contrasted with a sequential comorbid spider bite (presumably that of a white-tailed spider, Lampona cylindrata) received soon after in Victoria, Australia. The polistine wasp’s toxin exceeded the spider venom in perceived pain. However, the wasp sting paled in terms of longitudinal dermal insult significance when compared with the necrosis that resulted either from the spider’s toxin, a possible fang-introduced infection, or an inappropriate immune response.

- by Kelvyn L Dunn
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- Entomology, Pacific Island Studies, Australia, Spiders

""Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial paper wasp found in peninsular
India, where recent work suggests the role of the Dufour’s gland hydrocarbons in queen signaling. It appears that the queen signals her presence to workers by rubbing the tip of her abdomen on the nest surface, thereby presumably applying her Dufour’s gland secretion to the nest. Since the queen alone produces pheromone from the Dufour’s gland and also applies it on the nest surface, the activity level of queen gland should be higher than that of worker gland, as the gland contents would have to get replenished periodically for queens but not for workers. The difference in activity level can be manifested in difference in Dufour’s gland morphology, larger glands implying higher activity levels and smaller glands implying lower activity levels, as positive correlation between gland size and gland activity has been reported in exocrine glands of various taxa (including Hymenopteran insects). Hence we investigated whether there is any size difference between Dufour’s glands of queens and workers in R. marginata. We found that there was no difference between queens and workers in their Dufour’s gland size, implying that Dufour’s gland activity and Dufour’s gland size are likely to be uncorrelated in this species.
""

- by Aniruddha Mitra and +1
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- Social insects, Pheromones, Morphology, Hymenoptera

A taxonomic study on the genus Anterhynchium de Saussure, 1863 from the Philippine Islands is presented. Two species are recorded: A. astrophilum Giordani Soika, 1996 and A. townesi van der Vecht, 1963. Anterhynchium astrophilum is recorded for the first time since its description, A. flavomarginatum townesi is raised to species rank (A. townesi stat. nov.) and its unknown male is described. A key to the species and new distributional records are provided.

- by Marco Selis
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- Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae, Hymenoptera: Vespidae

Resumen: El avispón Vespa bicolor, originario del sureste asiático, ha sido introducido accidentalmente en el sur de la provincia de Málaga (España), donde está establecido desde hace varios años. Se aportan las primeras citas ibéricas, junto con información complementaria sobre la especie.
Abstract: The black shield hornet, Vespa bicolor, native to southeastern Asia, has been accidentally introduced into Malaga province (Spain), where it has been living for several years now. The first Iberian records are provided along with some background information on the species.

- by Leopoldo Castro
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- Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Scoliidae

Ropalidia marginata, a primitively eusocial wasp, is different from typical primitively eusocial species in having docile queens who cannot be using dominance to maintain reproductive monopoly and instead appear to use a pheromone from the Dufour's gland to do so. When a docile queen is removed from her colony, one of the workers (potential queen, PQ) becomes highly aggressive, and if the queen is not returned, gradually loses her aggression and becomes the new docile queen within a few days. We hypothesized that the decrease in aggression of the PQ with time since queen removal should be correlated with her change in ovaries and pheromone profile. Because the Dufour's gland hydrocarbon composition in R. marginata can be correlated with fertility, this also gave us an opportunity to test whether PQ is different from workers in her Dufour's gland hydrocarbons. In this study, we therefore trace the road to royalty in R. marginata, that is, the transition of the PQ during queen establishment, in terms of her ovaries, aggression, and Dufour's gland hydrocarbons. Our study focuses on queen establishment, which is important for understanding how reproductive conflict can be manifested and resolved.

- by Aniruddha Mitra and +1
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- Animal Behavior, Chemical Ecology, Social insects, Pheromones

Queens of many social insect species are known to maintain reproductive monopoly by pheromonal signalling of fecundity. Queens of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata appear to do so using secretions from their Dufour’s glands, whose hydrocarbon composition is correlated with fertility. Solitary nest foundresses of R. marginata are without nestmates; hence expressing a queen signal can be redundant, since there is no one to receive the signal. But if queen pheromone is an honest signal inextricably linked with fertility, it should correlate with fertility and be expressed irrespective of the presence or absence of receivers of the signal, by virtue of being a byproduct of the state of fertility. Hence we compared the Dufour’s gland hydrocarbons and ovaries of solitary foundresses with queens and workers of post-emergence nests. Our results suggest that queen pheromone composition in R. marginata is a byproduct of fertility and hence can honestly signal fertility. This provides important new evidence for the honest signalling hypothesis.

- by Aniruddha Mitra and +1
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- Chemical Ecology, Social insects, Pheromones, Behavioral Ecology

In this study, the material of the family Vespidae was collected from different localities of Turkey in 1957-2004 and it has been determined that totally 24 species and subspecies belonging to Vespidae occurring in the collection of LEMT (Lodos Entomological Museum, Turkey). Some new localities were found for some species and subspecies previously known in Turkey. Among them, Vespula germanica (Fabricius, 1799) and Vespa orientalis Linnaeus, 1771 were the abundant and widespread species. Separately, Polistes gallicus (Linnaeus, 1767) and P. dominulus (Christ, 1791) were the other common species.

- by Serdar Tezcan and +1
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- Systematics (Taxonomy), Entomology, Sustainable agriculture, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function

This study presents DNA barcode records for 4118 specimens representing 561 species of bees belonging to the six
families of Apoidea (Andrenidae, Apidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae and Melittidae) found in Central
Europe. These records provide fully compliant barcode sequences for 503 of the 571 bee species in the German fauna
and partial sequences for 43 more. The barcode results are largely congruent with traditional taxonomy as only five
closely allied pairs of species could not be discriminated by barcodes. As well, 90% of the species possessed sufficiently
deep sequence divergence to be assigned to a different Barcode Index Number (BIN). In fact, 56 species (11%)
were assigned to two or more BINs reflecting the high levels of intraspecific divergence among their component specimens.
Fifty other species (9.7%) shared the same Barcode Index Number with one or more species, but most of these
species belonged to a distinct barcode cluster within a particular BIN. The barcode data contributed to clarifying the
status of nearly half the examined taxonomically problematic species of bees in the German fauna. Based on these
results, the role of DNA barcoding as a tool for current and future taxonomic work is discussed.

- by Christian Schmid-Egger and +1
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- Hymenoptera, Systematics of Apoidea, Crabronidae, Hymenoptera systematics