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A new species, Subancistrocerus pakistanensis Qasim, Carpenter et Rafique sp. nov. is described and illustrated from Pakistan, based on several specimens collected in the Multan Region. Genus Subancistrocerus is recorded for the first time from Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parasitoid wasps within the Vespoidea superfamily have been chronically under surveyed, thanks to the bigger attention given to the social species within that group or to the other parasitoids within the megadiverse Parasitica infraorder. To address that, we test a new sampling technique for the capture of parasitoid Vespoidea and other Hymenoptera in comparison to other two well stablished designs. Between the consecutive dry and wet seasons of 2014-2015 we placed sets of Malaise (MT), yellow pan (YPT) and ethanolic (ET) traps in a fragment of semideciduous Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. We hypothesised that MT is the most efficient method for sampling Hymenoptera families and lower taxa of Vespoidea, while YPT and ET would be more efficient in attracting specific taxa, given their characteristic luring mechanisms. We calculated taxa accumulation curves to evaluate expected richness. Average Taxonomic Distinctiveness (Δ+ ) was used as the continuous dependent variable in two-way ANOVAs. Faunal similarity was inspected through nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). All tests were performed taking season and trap design as explanatory variables. MT was the most efficient in sampling total richness and Δ+ of Hymenoptera and Vespoidea lower taxa. It captured all 39 families recorded in the present study and 60 out of the 73 Vespoidea lower taxa. YPT tended to lure Diapriidae, Dryinidae, Ponerinae and Myrmicinae ants and a few taxa of Pompilidae and Mutillidae, proving its efficiency in sampling wingless and shortflying hymenopterans as well as the predators and parasites of other non-grass feeding insects. ET, although successful in estimating Hymenoptera Δ +, did not have a sufficient capture rate to give a precise estimate of total richness. It attracted, however, the social wasps Polybia jurinei Saussure and Synoeca surinama (L.), species traditionally captured by active search. Synthesis and Applications: MT is confirmed as the most efficient capture method for Hymenoptera sampling and is recommended when a survey of the whole community is intended. ET was not successful in capturing any parasitoid Vespoidea as hypothesised but, as well as the YPT, it could be used as an alternative to active searches when the taxa listed above are the focus of the survey. These results provide a better understanding of passive capture methods for Hymenoptera sampling and can be considered in future surveys aiming to investigate their diversity, distribution and improve their conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maldives islands host a unique biodiversity, but their integrity is threatened by climate change and impacting land-uses (e.g. cemented or agricultural areas). As pollinators provide key services for the ecosystems and for the inhabitants, it is crucial to know which pollinators occur in the islands, to characterise their genetic identity and to understand which plants they visit and the size of the human impact. Given that no significant faunistic surveys of Hymenoptera have been published for the country in more than 100 years and that Syrphidae were only partly investigated, we sampled islands in the central part of the Maldives country (Faafu and Daahlu atolls) and hand-netted flower-visiting bees, wasps and hoverflies (Hymenoptera: Anthophila, Crabronidae, Sphecidae, Vespidae, Scoliidae and Diptera: Syrphidae). Overall, we found 21 species; 76.4% of the collected specimens were Anthophila (bees), 12.7% belonged to several families of wasps and 10.8% of individuals were Syrphidae. It seems that one third of species are new for the Maldives, based on the published literature. Human land-uses seem to shape the local pollinator fauna since the assemblages of bees, wasps and hoverflies from urbanised and agricultural islands differed from those in resort and natural ones. These pollinators visited 30 plant species in total, although some invasive plants hosted the highest number of flower visitor species. Biogeographically, this pollinating fauna is mostly shared with Sri Lanka and India. Genetically, the used marker hinted for a unique fauna in relation to the rest of the distribution ranges in most cases, although generally within the level of intraspecific genetic variation. This study significantly contributes to increasing the knowledge on the pollinator diversity and genetic identity in Maldives islands also considering the important implications for the islands' land-use and the role of invasive plants. This study will be pivotal for future pollination studies and biodiversity conservation efforts in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When assessing changes in populations of species, it is essential that the methods used to collect data have some level of precision and preferably also good accuracy. One commonly used method to collect pollinators is colour pan traps, but this method has been suggested to be biased by the abundance of surrounding flowers. The present study evaluated the relationship between pan trap catches and the frequency of flowers on small (25 m2) and large (2–6 ha) spatial scales. If pan traps work well, one should assume a positive relationship, that is, more insects caught when they have more food. However, in contrast, we found that catches in pan traps were often negatively affected by flower frequency. Among the six taxa evaluated, the negative bias was largest in Vespoidea and Lepturinae, while there was no bias in solitary Apoidea (Cetoniidae, Syrphidae and social Apoidea were intermediate). Furthermore, red flowers seemed to contribute most to the negative bias. There was also a tendency that the negative bias differed within the flight season and that it was higher when considering the large spatial scale compared to the small one. To conclude, pan trap catches may suffer from a negative bias due to surrounding flower frequency and color. The occurrence and magnitude of the negative bias were context and taxon dependent, and therefore difficult to adjust for. Thus, pan traps seem less suited to evaluate differences between sites and the effect of restoration, when gradients in flower density are large. Instead, it seems better suited to monitor population changes within sites, and when gradients are small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the social wasps, meconium is the fecal waste of the last larval instar before pupation. Meconium is ejected from fifth (last) instar larvae after their last feeding period as a fecal mass in Polistes species. The ejection of the meconium is important for the completion of metamorphosis. The aim of this study was to determine the elemental composition of meconium from Polistes dominulus (Christ) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Meconia were analyzed with an energy dispersive x-ray scanning electron microscope where the average atomic percentage of C, N, O, P, K, Si, Fe, Mg, S, Al, Ca, Na, and Cl were determined. We also found that the percentage of elements in the meconia in our study were variable and probably attributable to larval diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhopalosomatidae are unusual wasps whose larvae develop as ectoparasitoids on crickets. In America north of Mexico, three genera and six species are recognized. Host species are known only for Rhopalosoma nearcticum Brues and include Hapithus agitator Uhler, H. brevipennis (Saussure), and H. saltator (Uhler) (Gryllidae: Hapithinae). Here we report a new host species: the Anaxipha exigua (Say) species-group (Trigonidiidae: Trigonidiinae) discovered by barcoding nine rhopalosomatid larvae collected from Cypress Grove Nature Park, Jackson, Tennessee. Rhopalosoma nearcticum is currently the only documented species of Rhopalosoma Cresson in America north of Mexico, but our phylogenetic analyses recovered two genetically distinct clades of Rhopalosoma and thus reveal the presence of at least two species of Rhopalosoma in America north of Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014–2015 a faunistical survey was carried out in Sălaj County, Romania by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in co-operation with the “Vasile Goldis” Western University of Arad. Here we report the results of the following aculeate wasp and ant families: Chrysididae (5 species), Dryinidae (2 species), Embolemidae (1 species), Sapygiidae (1 species), Mutillidae (2 species), Scoliidae (1 species), Tiphiidae (2 species), Formicidae (28 species), Pompilidae (5 species), Vespidae (10 species), Sphecidae (2 species), and Crabronidae (14 species). In total, 73 species were recorded.

Fourteen genera and 33 species of wasps belonging to the family Vespidae are reported from the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, of which seven genera and 23 species are new records for Chhattisgarh.

Animal mitochondrial genomes have provided large and diverse datasets for evolutionary studies. Here, the first two representative mitochondrial genomes from the family Pompilidae (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea) were determined using next-generation sequencing. The sequenced region of these two mitochondrial genomes from the species Auplopus sp. and Agenioideus sp. was 16,746 bp long with an A + T content of 83.12% and 16,596 bp long with an A + T content of 78.64%, respectively. In both species, all of the 37 typical mitochondrial genes were determined. The secondary structure of tRNA genes and rRNA genes were predicted and compared with those of other insects. Atypical trnS1 using abnormal anticodons TCT and lacking D-stem pairings was identified. There were 49 helices belonging to six domains in rrnL and 30 helices belonging to three domains in rrns present. Compared with the ancestral organization, four and two tRNA genes were rearranged in mitochondrial genomes of Auplopus and Agenioideus, respectively. In both species, trnM was shuffled upstream of the trnI-trnQ-trnM cluster, and trnA was translocated from the cluster trnA-trnR-trnN-trnS1-trnE-trnF to the region between nad1 and trnL1, which is novel to the Vespoidea. In Auplopus, the tRNA cluster trnW-trnC-trnY was shuffled to trnW-trnY-trnC. Phylogenetic analysis within Vespoidea revealed that Pompilidae and Mutillidae formed a sister lineage, and then sistered Formicidae. The genomes presented in this study have enriched the knowledge base of molecular markers, which is valuable in respect to studies about the gene rearrangement mechanism, genomic evolutionary processes and phylogeny of Hymenoptera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourteen genera and 33 species of wasps belonging to the family Vespidae are reported from the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, of which seven genera and 23 species are new records for Chhattisgarh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first checklist of the Peruvian Hymenoptera listed 1169 species and subspecies of aculeate wasps, including 173 species of Pompilidae, seven of Scoliidae, 39 of Sphecidae and 403 of Vespidae. Herein are reported 32 species as new for Peru based mainly on the collection of the Natural History Museum, London. The loss of the endemic status of two species is also reported: Entypus peruvianus (Rohwer) (Pompilidae: Pepsinae) and Omicron ruficolle schunkei Giordani Soika (Vespidae: Eumeninae). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various nectar components have a repellent effect on flower visitors, and their adaptive advantages for the plant are not well understood. Persea americana (avocado) is an example of a plant that secretes nectar with repellent components. It was demonstrated that the mineral constituents of this nectar, mainly potassium and phosphate, are concentrated enough to repel honey bees, Apis mellifera, a pollinator often used for commercial avocado pollination. Honey bees, however, are not the natural pollinator of P. americana, a plant native to Central America. In order to understand the role of nectar minerals in plant-pollinator relationships, it is important to focus on the plant's interactions with its natural pollinators. Two species of stingless bees and one species of social wasp, all native to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, part of the natural range of P. americana, were tested for their sensitivity to sugar solutions enriched with potassium and phosphate, and compared with the sensitivity of honey bees. In choice tests between control and mineral-enriched solutions, all three native species were indifferent for mineral concentrations lower than those naturally occurring in P. americana nectar. Repellence was expressed at concentrations near or exceeding natural concentrations. The threshold point at which native pollinators showed repellence to increasing levels of minerals was higher than that detected for honey bees. The results do not support the hypothesis that high mineral content is attractive for native Hymenopteran pollinators; nevertheless, nectar mineral composition may still have a role in regulating flower visitors through different levels of repellency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an application which asks the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to maintain usage of the names clytemnestra Fox and dasya Péringuey through suppression of the senior objective synonym Mutilla clytemnestra Péringuey for the purposes of both the Principle of Priority and the Principle of Homonym. The commission is also asked to place the said names on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology.

Diversification in insects has often been linked to the evolution of angiosperms. The majority of studies reporting this link, however, have been done on herbivorous insects. It remains unclear if the diversification of angiosperms was also influential in the diversification of species-rich, carnivorous insect groups. Here we investigate the timing of the origin and diversification in the stinging wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata). We employ a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo relaxed clock approach to estimate divergence times for 13 wasp families and eight superfamilies. Divergence times are calibrated with 12 fossils representing groups in various lineages. Our results indicate that many of the modern aculeate families originated during the Cretaceous and in concert with the diversification of angiosperms. This similarity between diversification ages in wasps and in angiosperms may be due to an increased habitat complexity and prey diversity that early angiosperm forests provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New World species of the brachypterous wasp genus Olixon Cameron are revised and five species are recognized: Olixon atlanticum Fernandez & Sarmiento-M., O. banksii (Brues), O. bicolor Roig Alsina & Martínez, O. melinsula sp. n. and O. testaceum Cameron. The new species and the previously unknown female of O. bicolor are described. An identification key and a distribution map for the New World Olixon are provided. The genus Olixon is more widely distributed throughout the New World than previously thought and here newly recorded from Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the effects of isolation and size of small tropical islands on species assemblages of bees (superfamily Apoidea) and wasps (superfamily Vespoidea). Twenty islands in the Kepulauan Seribu Archipelago off the coast of west Java, Indonesia. The size of surveyed islands ranges between 0.75 and 41.32 ha; their distance from the coast of Java varies between 3 and 62 km. Field work was conducted from February to May 2005. Bees and wasps were caught with a sweep net during sampling units of 15 min, continuing until four consecutive samples revealed no new species. Total species richness was quantified by the estimators Chao 2, first-order jackknife and Michaelis-Menten. The software was used to test for nestedness of species assemblages. Similarities of species composition between islands were quantified by Sørensen's similarity index. Eighty-two species were recorded on the 20 surveyed islands. Species richness declined with increasing isolation of islands from the source area, Java. Although the size of the largest island exceeded that of the smallest island by a factor of almost 60, island size only very weakly affected species richness of bees; no effect of island size was found for wasps. Mean body size of species decreased with increasing island isolation. Nestedness of island faunas was only weakly developed. Species composition of both superfamilies was affected by island isolation, but not by island size. While the species-isolation relationship on the very small islands of Kepulauan Seribu followed the prediction of MacArthur and Wilson's equilibrium theory, the absence of a species-area relationship indicated a weak 'small-island effect', at least in wasps. The combination of an only weakly developed pattern of nested species subsets, the shift in species compositions and the decline of mean body size with increasing island isolation from the source area indicates that biotic interactions and different species traits contribute to the shaping of communities of bees and wasps within the archipelago. The potential of biotic interactions for generating distribution patterns of species within the archipelago is also emphasized by the observed restriction of some species with apparently high dispersal abilities to outer islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the plenary power the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has ruled to maintain current usage of the names Mutilla clytemnestra Fox, 1899 and Mutilla dasya Péringuey, 1899 through the suppression of the senior primary homonym and objective synonym of the former, Mutilla clytemnestra Péringuey, 1899, for the purposes of both the Principle of Priority and the Principle of Homonymy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]