There are several possible causes of aggregated nesting in solitary Aculeata, one being joint defense against parasites. We tested whether females prefer nesting in aggregations, even if they consist of heterospecifics. We compared the colonization and nesting parasitism of trap-nests with and without a red mason bee aggregation. The results did not support our hypothesis that females prefer nesting in aggregations. The numbers of wild Aculeata nests did not differ between trap-nests with and without an aggregation. Unexpectedly, parasitism rates were higher in trap-nests with aggregations. When analyzing only nests of wild insects (mostly wasps), the differences in parasitism disappeared. Natural nesting sites may be such a limited resource that females nested in the first trap-nest they encountered and did not discriminate between our treatments, or wasps might share too few parasites species with bees to benefit from joint nest defense.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007485317000475 | DOI Listing |
Toxins (Basel)
March 2023
Venom Evolution Lab, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
Aculeate hymenopterans use their venom for a variety of different purposes. The venom of solitary aculeates paralyze and preserve prey without killing it, whereas social aculeates utilize their venom in defence of their colony. These distinct applications of venom suggest that its components and their functions are also likely to differ.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZootaxa
July 2019
Laboratório de Aculeata, Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Julio de Mesquita Filho, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil..
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Phylogenet Evol
June 2019
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. Electronic address:
After the break-up of Gondwana dispersal of organisms between America, Australia and Africa became more complicated. One of the possible remaining paths led through Antarctica, that was not yet glaciated and it remained habitable for many organisms. This favourable climate made Antarctica an important migration corridor for organisms with good dispersal ability, such as Aculeata (Hymenoptera), till the Oligocene cooling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Phylogenet Evol
November 2017
Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany; Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Institute for Biology I (Zoology), University of Freiburg, Hauptstraße 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address:
The wasp family Vespidae comprises more than 5000 described species which represent life history strategies ranging from solitary and presocial to eusocial and socially parasitic. The phylogenetic relationships of the major vespid wasp lineages (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBull Entomol Res
February 2018
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Kraków,Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków,Poland.
There are several possible causes of aggregated nesting in solitary Aculeata, one being joint defense against parasites. We tested whether females prefer nesting in aggregations, even if they consist of heterospecifics. We compared the colonization and nesting parasitism of trap-nests with and without a red mason bee aggregation.
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