Tag: Hymenoptera

With flying colors: Top entomology students honoured with wasp species named after them

The highly divergent parasitic wasps have long been causing headaches to scientists. At one point, taxonomists began using some genera as “dumping grounds for unplaced members”, simply to organise the species.

Two entomologists from the University of Kentucky, USA – Drs. Michael J. Sharkey and Eric Chapman, have recently addressed one such issue by describing ten new genera and many more new species and combinations. The resulting paper is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Interestingly, among the newly described species there are two wasps named after two excellent entomology students: Leuroagathis paulbakeri and Scabagathis emilynadeauae. Both Mr. Paul Baker and Ms. Emily Nadeau scored 100% during an Entomology class in 2015. Paul passed the written exam with flying colours, while Emily did best on the weekly quizzes.

One of the new genera (Chimaeragathis) is named after the Greek mythological monster Chimera. Known as the sibling of the infamous Cerberus and Hydra, the Hellenes would describe Chimera as a horrid hybrid comprising several animals – usually a lion, a goat, and a serpent. The scientists have picked this name as a reference to the multiple diagnostic characters of the genus. In turn, each of those characters consists of a set of features used to diagnose related genera.

To breed, the females of these wasps lay eggs inside the early stages of caterpillars of various moths. At first, the larva develops quietly as if unnoticed by the host. By the time the caterpillar is ready to spin a cocoon, the parasitoid ‘awakes’ and consumes the host from the inside.

The aim of the present study is to revise the representatives of a tribe of braconid parasitoid wasps inhabiting Southeast Asia with a focus on Thailand. While having described a lot of new taxa, the scientists have saved another batch of new species for a separate future paper.

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Original source:

Sharkey MJ, Chapman E (2017) Ten new genera of Agathidini (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Agathidinae) from Southeast Asia. ZooKeys 660: 107-150. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.660.12390

Bee species with little known nesting-behavior observed to use plastic instead of leaves

Little is known about the nesting activities of some lineages of megachiline bees. Dr. Sarah Gess, affiliated with both Albany Museum and Rhodes University, South Africa, and Peter Roosenschoon, Conservation Officer at the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, United Arab Emirates, made use of their earlier observations gathered during a survey on flower visitation in the spring of 2015, to fill some gaps in the knowledge of of three species from such lineages.

Among their findings, published in the open access Journal of Hymenoptera Research, is a curious instance of a bee attempting to build brood cells using green pieces of plastic. Having examined two nests of the leafcutter bee species Megachile (Eurymella) patellimana, they report that one of the females nested in burrows in compacted sandy ground beneath a plant, and the other – in the banks of an irrigation furrow.

However, while the former was seen carrying a freshly cut leaf, the latter seemed to have discovered a curious substitute in the form of green plastic. Later on, upon checking the nest, the researchers found that the phenomenon they had observed was no isolated incident – at least six identical pieces of narrow, tough, green plastic were grouped together in an apparent attempt to construct a cell. It turns out that the bee had been deliberately cutting off approximately 10-milimetre-long pieces with its large and strong toothed mandibles, before bringing them back to the nest.

“Although perhaps incidentally collected, the novel use of plastics in the nests of bees could reflect ecologically adaptive traits necessary for survival in an increasingly human-dominated environment,” the authors quote an earlier study.

The two studied mason bee species (Megachile (Maximegachile) maxillosa and Pseudoheriades grandiceps) were seen to construct their nests using a mixture of resin and sand in pre-existing cavities, such as trap-nests, above the ground. The researchers note that resin is a common nest-building material among numerous species of mason bees, also known as resin bees. Previously, it has been suggested that apart from making the nest waterproof, the plant secretions may contain substances that fend off parasites.

The authors’ earlier paper exploring the flower visitation by bees and wasps in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve is also published in the open-access Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

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Original source:

Gess SK, Roosenschoon PA (2017) Notes on the nesting of three species of Megachilinae in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, UAE. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 54: 43-56. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.54.11290

New species of parasitic wasp discovered in the eggs of leaf-rolling weevils in Africa

A new species of parasitic wasp has been obtained from the eggs of weevils, associated with bushwillows, collected and identified by Dr. Silvano Biondi. Given the tiny insect from northeastern Gabon is the first record of its genus for West-Central Africa, the researchers Dr. Stefania Laudonia and Dr. Gennaro Viggiani, both affiliated with Italy’s University of Naples Federico II, decided to celebrate it by assigning the species a name that refers to the continent. Their team has published the findings in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Named Poropoea africana, the new species belongs to a large worldwide group of wasps well-known as egg parasitoids of leaf-rolling weevils. Using characteristically long ovipositors, they lay their own eggs in the eggs of the hosts, found in cigar-like rolls.

The new wasp measures less than 2 mm. It can be distinguished from related species by a number of characters, including the structure of the antennae, and the front and hind legs, which are more robust than the middle ones. The latter, which is a unique trait for the genus, seems to be an adaptation to host parasitisation, where the modified legs likely support the body and improve the propulsive efficiency of the ovipositor.

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Original source:

Laudonia S, Viggiani G, Biondi S (2017) A new species of Poropoea Foerster from Africa (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Trichogrammatidae). ZooKeys 658: 81-87. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.658.11501

Rarely-seen event of ant brood parasitism by scuttle flies video-documented

While many species of scuttle flies are associated with ants, their specific interactions with their hosts are largely unknown. Brood parasitism (attacking the immature stages, rather than the adult ants), for example, is an extremely rarely observed and little-studied phenomenon. However, a research team from the USA and Brazil, led by Dr. Brian Brown, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, have recently video-documented two such occasions. The observations are published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

One of the videos, taken in Brazil, shows female scuttle flies attacking ants evacuating their nest. Having had their colony exposed, worker ants try to carry the brood to the nearest shelter. The flies follow these workers on foot, and bump into them in attempt to make them drop the larvae. The scientists have provided a video of an ant which, when harassed, left a larva in a partially exposed position and fled. Immediately, the fly attacked the larva, laying an egg inside its body. The fact that the flies attack the relatively soft-bodied larvae explains the puzzling structure of the ovipositor (egg-layer) of this species (Ceratoconus setipennis), which appears much less hardened than the ovipositor of species attacking adult ants. As a result of the present observation, however, their association with ants is no longer a mystery.

The second footage, filmed in Costa Rica, shows an undescribed species of scuttle fly (genus Apocephalus) that fly above the ants. When they spot a worker carrying brood, it would plunge down to it, approach the ant from behind and land on the (in this case) pupa. Then, it flips over onto its back, keeping the pupa between itself and the ant, while it lays an egg into the pupa from an upside-down position.

“The video documentation of two very different types of brood parasitism of ant species by scuttle flies was recorded in two countries within just a few months of one another,” conclude the authors. “This hints at the many remarkable behaviors of phorid flies that may still await discovery by the patient observer. It appears brood parasitism may not be as rare as was once assumed, and that there may be a tremendous amount of information to uncover about these behaviors.”

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Original source:

Brown B, Hash J, Hartop E, Porras W, Amorim D (2017) Baby Killers: Documentation and Evolution of Scuttle Fly (Diptera: Phoridae) Parasitism of Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Brood. Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e11277. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e11277

New species of parasitic wasp named after ancient god of evil Set shows wicked behavior

Being able to manipulate its host’s behavior while growing inside of it, a new species of parasitic wasp seems to have deservedly received the name of the ancient Egyptian god of evil and chaos Set. Discovered in the southeastern United States, the new species, also called the crypt-keeper wasp, parasitizes crypt gall wasps, which in turn infest live oak. The research team led by Dr. Scott P. Egan of Rice University published their discovery in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Once parasitized, the crypt gall wasp cuts a hole through the gall it has built around itself, and plugs its head in it right before being killed. Meanwhile, the larva of the crypt-keeper wasp feeds, grows, and pupates on the insides of its host. As soon as it is ready to emerge as an adult, it takes a ‘shortcut’ out of the crypt gall straight through the head capsule of its prey, leaving chunks of exoskeleton behind in the ‘crypt’. The team has published a parallel paper (Weinersmith et al. 2017) documenting this manipulation and exploring the fitness benefit to E. set in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

To justify the comparison between the new wasp and Set, the scientists point out that the deity is said to have control on evil animals, such as hyenas and serpents. Furthermore, according to the ancient Egyptian mythology, he trapped his good-hearted brother Osiris in a crypt and killed him. Then, he chopped his body into small pieces and scattered them all over the world.

The new wasp, described under the name Euderus set belongs to a genus of approximately 77 species with a cosmopolitan distribution. The species is a tiny insect measuring between 1.2 and 2.3 mm in length, but under a microscope, it is one of the most colorful. Its colors are shiny metallic, varying from olive green to turquoise to iridescent blue, depending on lighting and age. Originally discovered near Inlet Beach, Florida, it has now been found across the U.S. Gulf coast, including sites in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

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Original source:

Egan SP, Weinersmith KL, Liu S, Ridenbaugh RD, Zhang MY, Forbes AA (2017) Description of a new species of Euderus Haliday from the southeastern United States (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae): the crypt-keeper wasp. ZooKeys 645: 37-49. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.645.11117

Ottawa confirmed as the biodiversity hotspot for a subfamily of wasps in North America

What usually comes to mind when speaking about biodiversity hotspots are tropical regions, pristine areas and magnificent forests. Meanwhile, it is quite rare that a city in a temperate zone is considered significant in terms of biodiversity, much less mentioned as a hotspot. Yet, the city of Ottawa together with its surroundings, despite having population surpassing 1 million people, is now confirmed to be the locality in North America with the most recorded species of braconid wasps in the subfamily Microgastrinae, a group of parasitic insects that attack caterpillars and play an important role in the natural biocontrol of agriculture and forestry pests.

A study published in ZooKeys reports 158 species within 21 different genera of Microgastrinae for Ottawa. “To put this into perspective,” says Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana, affiliated with the Canadian National Collection of Insects and lead author of the paper, “if Ottawa (a relatively small area of less than 7,800 km2) would be considered as a country itself, its species total would rank 17th among all countries in the world.”

There are close to 200 species of microgastrine wasps known from Canada and around 350 – from North America. Thus, the fauna in Ottawa equals to three quarters of the total recorded for the entire country, and almost half of all species in the Nearctic region. In fact, the diversity in the Canadian capital represents by far the highest number of species ever recorded for a locality in North America, a consequence of the city being a transition from an eastern deciduous forest biome to a boreal biome, with small areas of unusual habitats like dunes, alvars, floodplains and bogs.

Based on the analysis of almost 2,000 specimens, collected between 1894 and 2010, and housed in the Canadian National Collection of Insects, the paper also reports two new species for North America and two additional species records for Canada and Ontario, as well as dozens of new additions to the regional fauna. Seasonal distribution showed several peaks of activity, in spring, summer, and early fall.

The study highlights the incredible diversity of parasitoid wasps and how much remains to be discovered, even in temperate areas and/or city environments. “It is possible that southern localities in North America are eventually found to be more diverse than Ottawa,” notes Dr. Fernandez-Triana. “But for that to happen one would need to find an area that has a variety of habitats and has also been thoroughly sampled over the years, with thousands of specimens available for study.”

“In the meantime,” jokes the scientist, “the citizens of the Canadian capital will have the bragging rights in North America, at least for microgastrine wasp diversity.”

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Original source:

Fernandez-Triana J, Boudreault C, Buffam J, Mclean R (2016) A biodiversity hotspot for Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) in North America: annotated species checklist for Ottawa, Canada. ZooKeys 633: 1-93. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.633.10480

In the belly of the Devil: New rare ant species found in the stomach of a poison frog

While new ant species are usually discovered in surveys involving researchers searching through leaf litter, it turns out that sifting through the stomach contents of insect-eating frogs might prove no less effective, especially when it comes to rare species. Such is the case of a new species of rarely collected long-toothed ant, discovered in the belly of a Little Devil poison frog in Ecuador.

The international team of Drs Christian Rabeling and Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo, both affiliated with University of Rochester, USA, Lauren A. O’Connell, Harvard University, USA, Luis A. Coloma, Fundación Otonga and Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Ecuador, and Fernando Fernández, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, have their study published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The new ant species, named Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri after renowned myrmecologist Bert Hölldobler on the occasion of his 80th birthday, was described based on a single individual – a female worker, recovered from a Little Devil poison frog. It is the seventh known species in this rarely collected Neotropical genus.

Similarly to its relatives within the group, this ant amazes with its slender and elongate mouthpart, yet it is larger than all of them. The remarkable jaws speak of specialised predatory habits, however, so far, nothing is known about these ants’ feeding behavior.

The amphibian, whose diet majorly consists of ants, was collected from the Ecuadorian region Choco, which, unfortunately, despite being one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world with exceptionally high levels of endemism, is also one of Earth’s most threatened areas.

In conclusion, the authors point out that “studying vertebrate stomach contents is not only a way of studying the trophic ecology” (meaning the feeding relationships between organisms), “but also an interesting source of cryptic and new arthropod species, including ants.”

Furthermore, the scientists note that nowadays there is no need to kill a frog, in order to study its stomach. “Stomach flushing methods have been developed and successfully applied in numerous studies, which avoids killing individuals.”

Original source:

Rabeling C, Sosa-Calvo J, O’Connell LA, Coloma LA, Fernández F (2016) Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri: a new ant species discovered in the stomach of the dendrobatid poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica (Funkhouser). ZooKeys 618: 79-95. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.618.9692

Trapped in a nuclear weapon bunker wood ants survive for years in Poland

Having built their nest over the vertical ventilation pipe of an old nuclear weapon bunker in Poland, every year a large number of wood ants fall down the pipe to never return back to their colony.

Curiously, although trapped in extremely severe conditions underground, the ants have already upped their numbers to these of big, mature natural colonies, while also carrying on with their basic activities of nest maintenance, constructing and moulding. This unique population is described in the open access Journal of Hymenoptera Research by the team of Polish scientist Wojciech Czechowski, Polish Academy of Science.

The studied colony is still unique, despite the fact that there are previously known similar cases, such as a black garden ant colony that found a home in a chassis of an immobilised car, where the insects had built their nest from mud and dry plant remnants stuck to the underbody. Another wood ant colony is known to have lived in almost complete darkness within a cubic wooden box with no openings apart from a narrow slit at the bottom of one side. Yet, unlike the ants from the bunker, they have all had access to the outside world, having deliberately made their own choice to settle in such extraordinary locations.

Thanks to an yearly campaign set to count the hibernating in the same bunker bats, the ant population was discovered in 2013. Interestingly, when the ants were checked on in 2015, the researchers not only found the population still surviving, but even increasing its numbers.

According to the estimates, they counted at least several hundred thousand workers, arguably close to a million. Moreover, when the researchers went back to the bunker in 2016, they found the mound’s damage, caused on their previous visit, repaired, which showed the population still managed to maintain their nest almost as if they were leading a normal life.

The ant ‘colony’ was found to have built an earthen mound in a small 2.3 m high room with a base area of 3 m x 1.2 m. Normally, such wood ants settle exclusively on large forested islands, where they can forage enough food to answer the high energy demand of the colony.

However, the confined space within the bunker has not been the only obstacle the ants have been facing in their underground trap. Beside the lacking food and light, the ‘colony’ had to also deal with the low temperatures between the one-metre thick ferroconcrete walls. All year long it was no more than 10 °C.

Understandably, the severe conditions within the bunker made reproduction effectively impossible. Although the scientists did undertake a special search for larvae, pupae, empty cocoons or queens, they found nothing. Nor did they find signs of male offspring.

Looking for an answer why the population was still seemingly thriving, the scientists deducted that there was a constant influx of newly fallen ants. The metal plate that once covered the pipe outlet had obviously rusted so much that it has been collapsing under a big wood ant colony’s mound built right over the pipe. In fact, the mortality in the bunker is quite high, but the regular ‘newcomers’ turn out to be overcompensating for the dead ants.

“To conclude, the wood ant ‘colony’ described here – although superficially looking like a functioning colony with workers teeming on the surface of the mound – is rather an example of survival of a large amount of workers trapped within a hostile environment in total darkness, with constantly low temperatures and no ample supply of food,” say the authors.

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Original source:

Czechowski W, Rutkowski T, Stephan W, Vepsäläinen K (2016) Living beyond the limits of survival: wood ants trapped in a gigantic pitfall. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 51: 227-239. doi: 10.3897/jhr.51.9096

One of 8 new endemic polyester bees from Chile bears the name of a draconic Pokemon

Among the eight new bee species that Spencer K. Monckton has discovered as part of his Biology Master’s degree at York University, there is one named after a popular draconic creature from the Japanese franchise Pokémon. Called the stem-nesting Charizard, the new insect belongs to a subgenus, whose 17 species are apparently endemic to Chile, yet occupy a huge variety of habitats.

The young scientist, who is currently a PhD student at the University of Guelph, studying sawfly systematics and phylogeography, has his work published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Known as polyester bees, the family to which the new species belong is characterized by the curious secretions these bees produce. Once applied to the walls of their nest cells, the secretion dries into a smooth, cellophane-like lining.

The new bee species are endemic to Chile, yet they occupy a huge variety of habitats ranging from the hyper-arid Atacama Desert in the north, to moist forests of monkey puzzle trees in the south, spanning elevations from the Pacific coast to more than 3200 metres above sea level. All of them are also solitary and nest in hollow plant stems.

Although the new bee species might lack the fiery breath of the dragon-like Pokémon, much like its namesake, it is normally found around mountains. Also, like the fictional species, the new bee has a distinctively long, snout-like face and broad hind legs, with antennae in place of horns.

However, the stem-nesting Charizard bee, as well as the other new species, are tiny creatures that measure between 4 and 7 mm in length. Unlike the predominantly orange colouration of the Pokémon, both males and females are mostly dark brown to black, patterned with variable yellow markings.

Yet, sometimes these yellow markings can turn orange when specimens are preserved, as was the case for the first specimen that Spencer Monckton observed of this species, which, he says, “cemented the comparison”.

In his research paper Spencer Monckton not only describes eight new endemic polyester bees, but he also provides thoroughly illustrated keys for identification of both the males and females of each of the species.

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Original source:

Monckton SK (2016) A revision of Chilicola (Heteroediscelis), a subgenus of xeromelissine bees (Hymenoptera, Colletidae) endemic to Chile: taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography, with descriptions of eight new species. ZooKeys 591: 1-144. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.591.7731

Bee populations expanded during global warming after the last Ice Age

The Australian small carpenter bee populations appear to have dramatically flourished in the period of global warming following the last Ice Age some 18,000 years ago.

The bee species is found in sub-tropical, coastal and desert areas from the north-east to the south of Australia. Researchers Rebecca Dew and Michael Schwarz from the Flinders University of South Australia teamed up with Sandra Rehan, the University of New Hampshire, USA, to model its past responses to climate change with the help of DNA sequences. Their findings are published in the open access Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

“You see a rapid increase in population size from about 18,000 years ago, just as the climate began warming up after the last Ice Age,” says lead author Rebecca Dew. “This matches the findings from two previous studies on bees from North America and Fiji.”

“It is really interesting that you see very similar patterns in bees around the world,” adds Rebecca. “Different climate, different environment, but the bees have responded in the same way at around the same time.”

In the face of future global warming these finding could be a good sign for some of our bees.

However, the news may not all be positive. There are other studies showing that some rare and ancient tropical bees require cool climate and, as a result, are already restricted to the highest mountain peaks of Fiji. For these species, climate warming could spell their eventual extinction.

“We now know that climate change impacts bees in major ways,” says Rebecca, “but the challenge will be to predict how those impacts play out. They are likely to be both positive and negative, and we need to know how this mix will unfold.”

Bees are major pollinators and are critical for many plants, ecosystems, and agricultural crops.

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Original source:

Dew RM, Rehan SM, Schwarz MP (2016) Biogeography and demography of an Australian native bee Ceratina australensis (Hymenoptera, Apidae) since the last glacial maximum. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 49: 25-41. doi: 10.3897/JHR.49.8066