CONTRIBUTION TO THE WASPS FAUNA (HYMENOPTERA: VESPOMORPHA) OF BOLSHOY SHANTAR ISLAND, KHABAROVSKY KRAI

The data on researchers and collectors of insects visited Shantar Islands (Khabarovsky krai, Sea of Okhotsk) from 1844 to 2020 are summarized in chronological order. According to our database 205 species in 39 families and seven orders of insects were recorded from Shantar Archipelago till now. Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoprea are the most studied orders of insects.

The Atlantic Forest is among the 36 biodiversity hotspots of the world. The southern region of this biome covers 52 conservation units (CUs), including the Bela Vista Biological Refuge (RBBV), which has actions based on biodiversity conservation, scientific research, and environmental education. Biodiversity is the basis for different ecosystem services that can be carried out by social wasps, essential in terrestrial environments. Brazil has the richest fauna of social wasps (Vespidae, Polistinae) on the planet (381 species); however, some Brazilian states, such as Paraná, are “undersampled.” This study was carried out with the goal of inventorying the fauna richness of social wasps in the Atlantic Forest. This biome is located in the RBBV, Paraná, Southern Brazil, and the collections took place from September 2021 to May 2022, totaling 20 days of sampling. Active search with the aid of insect entomological nets in trails near aquatic environments was used. A total of 18 species of social wasps were recorded, including four new records for the state of Paraná. This study recorded species restricted to some biomes and others of wide geographical occurrence; therefore, the RBBV is an important CU for maintaining the fauna of social wasps in the state of Paraná.

Although Ficus-associated wasp fauna have been extensively researched in Australasia, information on these fauna in Taiwan is not well accessible to scientists worldwide. In this study, we compiled records on the Ficus flora of Taiwan and its associated wasp fauna. Initial agronomic research reports on Ficus were published in Japanese in 1917, followed by reports on applied biochemistry, taxonomy, and phenology in Chinese. On the basis of the phenological knowledge of 15 species of the Ficus flora of Taiwan, recent research has examined the pollinating and nonpollinating agaonid and chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). Updating records according to the current nomenclature revealed that there are 30 taxa (27 species) of native or naturalized Ficus with an unusually high proportion of dioecious species (78%). Four species were observed to exhibit mutualism with more than one pollinating wasp species, and 18 of the 27 Ficus species were reported with nonpollinating wasp species. The number of nonpollinating wasp species associated with specific Ficus species ranges from zero (F. pumila) to 24 (F. microcarpa). Approximately half of the Taiwanese fig tree species have been studied with basic information on phenology and biology described in peer-reviewed journals or theses. This review provides a solid basis for future in-depth comparative studies. This summary of knowledge will encourage and facilitate continuing research on the pollination dynamics of Ficus and the associated insect fauna in Taiwan.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40529-015-0090-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This paper explores the perception, knowledge, and attitude of the inhabitants of Mangdi Valley in Trongsa District concerning bees and wasps (Hymenoptera). Prevailing conservation threats to these ecologically important insects were determined. Data were collected from June to September 2018 by means of open-ended interviews from 32 randomly selected individuals. Responses to questions regarding their perceptions were analyzed and comparisons were made among a variety of demographic groups distinguished by age group, gender, and education status. The results showed that the people were aware of 5–10 species of common bees and wasps, mostly found in the agriculture and forested areas. The main threats faced by these insects are developmental activities followed by hunting and consumption.

A list of 72 species of cynipid gall wasps that have been recorded to date in Serbia was compiled on the basis of studying cynipid fauna during the period from 2003 to 2020 and previously published data. The species Andricus quercusramuli (Linnaeus 1761) and Pediaspis aceris (Gmelin 1790) are recorded for the first time in the fauna of Serbia. The fauna of cynipid gall wasps in Serbia has still not been thoroughly studied. It is excepted that about 40 to 50 species new to the fauna will be found.

An illustrated account with diagnostic details of the reared and collected species of insect parasitoids along with scale insects and mealybugs from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is presented. Twenty eight species of insect pests and parasitoids under two major orders Hemiptera and Hymenoptera are documented, of which 16 species are reported for the first time from these islands specifically from South and Middle Andamans. The parasitic wasps reared and collected belong to six families-Encyrtidae, Eulophidae, Chalcididae, Eucharitidae, Aphelinidae, and Pteromalidae, including 16 species under 12 genera. The majority of the species are primary or secondary parasitoids attacking many insect groups. The scale insects and mealybugs documented belong to four families-Coccidae, Pseudococcidae, Diaspididae, and Cerococcidae, including 12 species under 11 genera. Information on the species distribution, host association, and brief taxonomical description of each species along with illustrations is provided for easy identification. Illustrations include habitus photographs of 16 species of parasitic wasps and 12 species of scales and mealybugs.

Species of fig trees (ficus) and their fig wasp pollinators (Agaonidae) were traditionally thought to have a highly specific one-to-one relationship, but increasing numbers of exceptions to this pattern are emerging. Here we describe an exceptional situation, where four different agaonid species (Alfonsiella brongersmai Wiebes, Alfonsiella natalensis Wiebes, Elisabethiella allotriozoonoides (Grandi) and Alfonsiella longiscapa Joseph) were recorded from a single host individual of Ficus natalensis natalensis Hochst. growing within its native range in Kibale Forest, Uganda. Germination studies confirmed that figs pollinated by at least three of the agaonid species contained viable seeds. Some of the agaonids are known to be associated with other Ficus species, raising the possibility that gene flow maybe occurring between taxa in the Ficus natalensis species group. The figs also contained an exceptionally rich fauna of non-pollinating fig wasps (21 species), but there was no evidence that any non-pollinator...

Taxonomic descriptions are unparalleled sources of knowledge of life's phenotypic diversity. As natural language prose, these data sets are largely refractory to computation and integration with other sources of phenotypic data. By formalizing taxonomic descriptions using ontology-based semantic representation, we aim to increase the reusability and computability of taxonomists' primary data. Here, we present a revision of the ensign wasp (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) fauna of New Caledonia using this new model for species description. Descriptive matrices, specimen data, and taxonomic nomenclature are gathered in a unified Web-based application, mx, then exported as both traditional taxonomic treatments and semantic statements using the OWL Web Ontology Language. Character:character-state combinations are then annotated following the entity–quality phenotype model, originally developed to represent mutant model organism phenotype data; concepts of anatomy are drawn from the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology and linked to phenotype descriptors from the Phenotypic Quality Ontology. The resulting set of semantic statements is provided in Resource Description Framework format. Applying the model to real data, that is, specimens, taxonomic names, diagnoses, descriptions, and redescriptions, provides us with a foundation to discuss limitations and potential benefits such as automated data integration and reasoner-driven queries. Four species of ensign wasp are now known to occur in New Caledonia: Szepligetella levipetiolata, Szepligetella deercreeki Deans and Mikó sp. nov., Szepligetella irwini Deans and Mikó sp. nov., and the nearly cosmopolitan Evania appendigaster. A fifth species, Szepligetella sericea, including Szepligetella impressa, syn. nov., has not yet been collected in New Caledonia but can be found on islands throughout the Pacific and so is included in the diagnostic key. [Biodiversity informatics; Evaniidae; New Caledonia; new species; ontology; semantic phenotypes; semantic species description; taxonomy.]

Since some social wasp species are sensitive to environmental changes and can be used as bioindicators, the objective of the present study was to analyze the variation in the fauna of social wasps during the phases: before, during, and after completion, as well as to validate the use of wasps as a tool for monitoring the impacts generated by the implantation of the Botanical Garden of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. Social wasps were sampled through active searching methods, searching for nests and attractive traps in the years 2011 and 2012 (before the construction), 2013, 2014, and 2016 (during the construction), and 2019 (after the construction and opening of the Botanical Garden). The richness and similarity of the species varied over the years, and it was possible to identify resistant and sensitive species to the impact caused by the implantation of the Botanical Garden. Studies with social wasp fauna conducted over many years in the same area can be an efficient tool in monitoring impacts; in addition, it is necessary to have a partnership between researchers and the management of the enterprises to mitigate the effects caused by guidelines and environmental education.

This article presents new data on the fauna of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of the Shantar Islands and the nearby continental coast. For the first time 17 species of ground beetles are reported for Bolshoy Shantar Island, 1 species of ground beetles for Yuzhny Island, and 22 species of ground beetles for the nearby continental coast. Bembidion arcticum Lindroth, 1963 is recorded from Khabarovsky Krai for the first time. Bembidion umiatense Lindroth, 1963 is known from a single specimen in this territory. New information is presented on the habitats and studied specimens of Agonum exaratum (Mannerheim, 1853), Amara praetermissa C.R. Sahlberg, 1827 and Harpalus nigritarsis C.R. Sahlberg, 1827 for the region. Pterostichus (Cryobius) sp. is new undescribed species.

The Avian Convergence Hypothesis states that avian–honeydew associations are likely to develop when biogeographic and/or climatic factors limit the formation of ant–honeydew associations (the dominant association in tropical ecosystems). In this study we examine a honeydew‐influenced forest system in an island archipelago where ant diversity is low but invasive Vespula wasp species (Vespidae) are present. We found honeydew production was highly seasonal, with both standing crop and 24‐h production peaking in summer. When Vespula wasps were abundant (summer and autumn) they preferentially visited infested trees and fed regularly on honeydew droplets on infested branches. Two ant species occasionally fed on honeydew. No other insects or birds were observed feeding on honeydew during the study period. With the exception of Vespula, honeydew does not appear to be a preferred food source in this community, possibly because of the range of other food resources available in surrounding forest, farmland and gardens. The abundance of Vespula wasps at the site may also have disrupted bird–honeydew associations. We suggest the Avian Convergence Hypothesis could be restated to explicitly include both nectar availability and invasive social insects as both are likely to influence bird use of honeydew.

Diversity and nest site selection of social wasps along Guianese forest edges: assessing the influence of arboreal ants

The apoid wasps have traditionally been regarded as a paraphyletic assemblage of four families (Ampulicidae, Crabronidae, Heterogynaidae and Sphecidae) that are closely related to the bees (Anthophila). The present study covers the three families of apoid wasps known to occur in Europe, that is, the Ampulicidae, Crabronidae and Sphecidae. DNA barcode sequences of 3,695 specimens of apoid wasps were analysed for the present study, including 21 specimens of Ampulicidae, 3,398 Crabronidae and 276 Sphecidae. The sequences of the dataset represent 661 species of apoid wasps, including two species of Ampulicidae, 613 of Crabronidae and 46 species of Sphecidae. The dataset includes DNA barcodes of 240 species of German apoid wasps, representing 88% of the German fauna, and 578 European species, representing 65% of the European apoid wasp fauna. The study demonstrates that virtually all species of the three examined families can be reliably identified by DNA barcodes. The implications of highly congruent results between traditional taxonomy and DNA barcoding for the reliable application of DNA-based identifications are discussed.

The paper wasps of the subgenus Polistella of the genus Polistes fonn a group with disjunctive distributions. Some Po/istella inhabit the whole of Africa south of the Sahara while others are known from East Asia and the Indo-Australian region. The African species include one (Polistesfaslidiosus de Saussure) which also occurs in the southern Arabian Peninsula Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman an area which is faunistically part of the Afrotropics. Po/istes smithii neavei von Schulthess, 1921, is a West and East African taxon known from Sierra Leone, Congo, Tanzania, including Zanzibar, Mozambique, and Zambia (CARPENTER 1996). Ln early 2008. the senior author of this contribution recei ved one specimen of this subspecies collected in west Yemen: Dhamar province, 2 km E Hammam Ali, 14°40'N, 44°10'E. l677 m a.s.!., 7 Apr 2007, I worker. S. KAouc leg., L. DVORAK det. et coli., 1. M. CARPENTER revid. via photo. Polistes smithii females can be easily separated from P. fastidioslls by their symmetric or almost symmetric claws on the two posterior pairs of tarsi (P. fastidiosus has distinctly asymmetric tarsi). The subspecies P. smithii neavei differs from the nominate one by having yellow posterior bands on first three metasomal terga (the nominate subspecies has visible bands on the first metasomal tergum and can have a thin band on the second metasomal tergum). This record represents the first record of P. smithii neavei from Yemen and. moreover, the occurrence of a second Polistella species from the Arabian Peninsula. Although various authors have published faunal data from Yemen, no summary of species occurring in this country has been made. A list of the social wasps of Yemen is presented here including sources of the data after 1981 (the year of the latest description of a new taxon from Yemen: Polistes tene//us /ahejensis Giordani Soika. 1981) and notes on their distribution. Altogether 12 (plus one accidentally introduced) species of social wasps are known from Yemen:

Germany is home to a rich cuckoo wasp fauna (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae) with about 108 species. However, several nomenclatural changes, the lack of identification keys, and the discovery of cryptic species difficult to identify based on external morphology have made the identification of several species a challenge. COI barcoding has been instrumental in the identification of some cuckoo wasp species and could help alleviate some of the above problems, but a reliable large reference database containing the cuckoo wasp barcodes is lacking. We present the COI barcodes of more than 800 specimens of 101 cuckoo wasp species native to Germany to lay the foundation for the barcode-based identification of German species. An analysis of the COI barcode sequences suggested groups that are largely consistent with the current taxonomy of the group. We found a few cases of over- or undersplitting of taxa. In some common species, the high degree of barcode divergence suggests the presence of cryptic species that need to be further assessed by integrative approaches. Our library of cuckoo wasp reference barcodes will enhance researchers' ability to reliably identify species within this fascinating group of insects, in particular for identifying life stages that offer few or no morphological features for species-level identification.