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Brief Summary

provided by Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
The wasps belonging to this family are all social species, the colonies consisting of one or more fertile queens, workers which are frequently numerous and usually infertile, and, at times, males and new queens.
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Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. 1979. Prepared cooperatively by specialists on the various groups of Hymenoptera under the direction of Karl V. Krombein and Paul D. Hurd, Jr., Smithsonian Institution, and David R. Smith and B. D. Burks, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Insect Identification and Beneficial Insect Introduction Institute. Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture.

Identification Atlas of the Vespidae (Hymenoptera, Aculeata) of the northeastern Nearctic region

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Identification Atlas of the Vespidae (Hymenoptera, Aculeata) of the northeastern Nearctic region The Vespidae of the northeastern Nearctic region are reviewed to include 92 established and four adventitious species. Six undescribed species (two each in Ancistrocerus, Euodynerus and Polistes) are recognised for the first time. Three former subspecies, Euodynerus blakeanus Cameron (subspecies of E. foraminatus de Saussure), Ancistrocerus albophaleratus de Saussure (subspecies of A. catskill de Saussure) and A. albolacteus Bequaert (subspecies of A. adiabatus de Saussure) are re-instated as or elevated to good species. Parancistrocerus vogti (Krombein) is synonymized with P. fulvipes (de Saussure). A brief introduction to the morphology, biology and distribution of Vespidae is given. Keys to subfamilies, genera and species are provided, and illustrated with 60 photographic plates (437 images) showing most diagnostic characters. All species are illustrated on 287 separate plates by means of (i) a set of standard photographs of pinned specimens (habitus lateral and dorsal, head of male and female; 537 images), and, where available, (ii) photographs of live specimens in the field (99 images). The variation (especially colour) of most species is described in detail and supplemented with brief information on distribution and biology. Twenty-two species (including five adventitious species) are recorded for the first time from Canada and numerous new state records for the U.S. are given. Euodynerus blakeanus, a taxon previously known only from Texas, is recorded for the first time from the northeastern Nearctic (New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia) and several midwestern and southeastern states (Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina). The occurrence of E. pratensis in the northeast (recorded from Ontario) is considered doubtful. New data on the nest sites of ten Eumeninae species is provided (Ancistrocerus albophaleratus, A. catskill, A. unifasciatus, Eumenes verticalis, Euodynerus auranus, E. planitarsis, Parancistrocerus leionotus, Parazumia symmorpha, Stenodynerus anormis, S. kennicottianus). Morphological and other scientific terms are explained in an appendix.

Vespidae

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Palaeovespa florissantia, late Eocene

The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as Polistes fuscatus, Vespa orientalis, and Vespula germanica) and many solitary wasps.[1] Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually last only one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators,[2] while others are notable predators of pest insect species.

The subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae are composed solely of eusocial species, while the Eumeninae, Euparagiinae, Gayellinae, Masarinae and Zethinae are all solitary with the exception of a few communal and several subsocial species. The Stenogastrinae are facultatively eusocial, considering nests may have one or several adult females; in cases where the nest is shared by multiple females (typically, a mother and her daughters) there is reproductive division of labor and cooperative brood care.[3]

In the Polistinae and Vespinae, rather than consuming prey directly, prey are premasticated and fed to the larvae, which in return, produce a clear liquid (with high amino acid content) for the adults to consume; the exact amino acid composition varies considerably among species, but it is considered to contribute substantially to adult nutrition.[4]

Fossils are known since Aptian of the Early Cretaceous, with several described species from Cretaceous amber.[5]

Gallery

References

  1. ^ Pickett, Kurt M.; Wenzel, John W. (2004). "Phylogenetic Analysis of the New World Polistes (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) Using Morphology and Molecules". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 77 (4): 742–760. doi:10.2317/E-18.1. S2CID 85737989.
  2. ^ Sühs, R.B.; Somavilla, A.; Putzke, J.; Köhler, A. (2009). "Pollen vector wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) of Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardiaceae), Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, Brazil". Brazilian Journal of Biosciences. 7 (2): 138–143.
  3. ^ PK Piekarski, JM Carpenter, AR Lemmon, E Moriarty-Lemmon, BJ Sharanowski. (2018) Phylogenomic Evidence Overturns Current Conceptions of Social Evolution in Wasps (Vespidae). Molecular Biology and Evolution. 35:2097-2109. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy124
  4. ^ Hunt, J.H.; Baker, I.; Baker, H.G. (1982). "Similarity of amino acids in nectar and larval saliva: the nutritional basis for trophallaxis in social wasps". Evolution. 36 (6): 1318–22. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1982.tb05501.x. PMID 28563573.
  5. ^ Perrard, Adrien; Grimaldi, David; Carpenter, James M. (April 2017). "Early lineages of Vespidae (Hymenoptera) in Cretaceous amber: Vespidae in Cretaceous amber" (PDF). Systematic Entomology. 42 (2): 379–386. doi:10.1111/syen.12222. S2CID 90328491.

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Vespidae: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN
Palaeovespa florissantia, late Eocene

The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as Polistes fuscatus, Vespa orientalis, and Vespula germanica) and many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually last only one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, while others are notable predators of pest insect species.

The subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae are composed solely of eusocial species, while the Eumeninae, Euparagiinae, Gayellinae, Masarinae and Zethinae are all solitary with the exception of a few communal and several subsocial species. The Stenogastrinae are facultatively eusocial, considering nests may have one or several adult females; in cases where the nest is shared by multiple females (typically, a mother and her daughters) there is reproductive division of labor and cooperative brood care.

In the Polistinae and Vespinae, rather than consuming prey directly, prey are premasticated and fed to the larvae, which in return, produce a clear liquid (with high amino acid content) for the adults to consume; the exact amino acid composition varies considerably among species, but it is considered to contribute substantially to adult nutrition.

Fossils are known since Aptian of the Early Cretaceous, with several described species from Cretaceous amber.

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cc-by-sa-3.0
copyright
Wikipedia authors and editors
original
visit source
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wikipedia EN