Nesting Association Between Two Neotropical Polybiine Wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)

Abstract

Nidification by the docile wasp, Mischocyttarus immarginatus, is highly selective for the immediate surroundings of Polybia occidentalis nests during the dry season in Costa Rica. INTERSPECIFIC NESTING RELATIONSHIPS may reflect the attempts of susceptible species to nest in proximity to more numerous or more aggressive species thereby lessening the effects of predation. The social Hymenoptera are commonly involved in nesting associations in the tropics. The nest-building activities of many birds are concentrated within a zone of safety surrounding the nests of aggressive vespid wasps such as Polistes in the Neotropics (Richards and Richards 1951) and Ropalidia in Africa (Moreau 1936). The nesting of oropendolas and caciques (Icteridae) near large nests of the polybiine wasps, Polybia (Myers 1929), Stelopolybia, Protopolybia, and the stingless bee Trigona, is thought by Smith (1968) to lessen predation by other vertebrates. The attraction of bird nesting to trees containing nests of the vicious African ant, Oecophylla, has been documented by MacLaren (1950). Janzen (1969) has shown that various lowland Central American birds nest preferentially in swollen thorn acacias (myrmecophytes) normally occupied by obligate acacia ants of the genus Pseu