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Local-scale spatial variation in diversity of social wasps in an Amazonian rain forest in Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae)

2012; Entomological Society of Brazil; Volume: 56; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s0085-56262012005000053

1806-9665

Orlando Tobias Silveira, Suzanna de Sousa Silva, Jorge Luís Gavina Pereira, Ingrid da Silva Tavares,

Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Polistine social wasps are important components of Neotropical ecosystems due to their ubiquity and diversity, as well as by the complex interactions with other organisms.They are mainly predators of other insects, especially Lepidoptera caterpillars, but also collect various natural materials including wood fibers and nectar (Gobbi et al. 1984;O'Donnell 1995;Raveret-Richter 2000;Richards 1971Richards , 1978)).Some studies have also shown them to be important as flower visitors and potential pollinators of plant species (Granja e Barros 1998;Heithaus 1979;Hermes & Köhler 2006;Sühs et al. 2009).Social wasps are among the better studied groups of insects in Brazil.However, until recently, most survey work has been conducted as qualitative museum inventories, without special concern for the controlling of benchmark aspects as collecting effort or area explored.The work of Adolpho Ducke (1904, 1905, 1907) represents a landmark pioneering initiative of a resident scientist in the Amazon region in surveying one of world's richest wasp faunas.The wasp fauna of the Brazilian Amazon is currently known to comprise 20 genera and about 200 species, representing nearly two-thirds of the total Brazilian wasp fauna (Carpenter & Marques 2001;Silveira 2002, Silveira et al. 2008).Several authors have recently published wasp inventories based on protocols amenable to replication in different areas so that more comparable information is expected to result from these studies (Corbara et al.