Neotropical Entomology 37(1): 001-007 (2008) Distribuição Altitudinal e Alocação de Recursos no Corpo em uma Vespa Social de Montanha Alta (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)RESUMO -A regra de Jame propõe uma relação direta entre o tamanho do corpo e a altitude. Muitos estudos são relacionados a essa regra; no entanto, poucos analisam as mudanças proporcionais em partes do corpo ao longo de gradientes. Foi estudada a variação morfológica em Agelaia pallipes (Olivier) em cinco faixas altitudinais (2600-3380 m), no Santuario de Iguaque (Colombia), com o objetivo de testar se a espécie segue a regra de Jame e se o tamanho de determinadas estruturas varia homogeneamente ao longo do gradiente. O efeito da altitude em estruturas foi testado com análise de variância multivariada (MANOVA), e a relação entre cada variável e altitude avaliada com análises de regressão. A MANOVA mostrou diferenças no tamanho das estruturas entre os locais. O aumento na altura conduz à redução no tamanho de corpo, especialmente no comprimento do fêmur traseiro e na largura da cabeça. No entanto, medidas de estruturas relacionadas ao vôo, tais como o comprimento do mesosoma, largura do mesoscutum, e ainda, tamanho da asa anterior, apresentam tendência inversa. É possível que todas as mudanças sejam conseqüência da redução de alimento e da diminuição da pressão atmosférica. A temperatura baixa das altitudes maiores pode limitar o forrageamento e, portanto, os recursos. A baixa pressão atmosférica torna o vôo mais difícil e pode resultar no aumento do tamanho das asas e dos músculos do vôo. Este trabalho enfatiza a necessidade de estudos relacionados a mudanças nas proporções corporais em espécie com amplas distribuições, latitudinal e altitudinal.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Regra de Jame, regra de Bermann, faixa altitudinal, Agelaia ABSTRACT -Jame´s rule proposes a direct relationship between body size and altitude. There are several studies about this rule; however, few studies analyze proportional changes in body parts along gradients. The morphological variation of Agelaia pallipes (Olivier) in fi ve sites along an altitudinal gradient (2600-3380 m) in the Santuario de Iguaque, Colombia, were studied in order to test whether or not the species follows Jame´s rule, and whether body parts follow a homogeneous variation. Body variation analysis was conducted through multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the relationship between altitude and each morphometric measurement was studied through regression analyses. The MANOVA indicated signifi cant differences among sites. An increase in altitude leads to a reduction in body size, especially in hind femur length and head width. However, measurements linked to fl ight such as mesosoma height, mesoscutum width, and fore wing size showed a reverse tendency. Possibly all described changes are consequence of both reduction on food availability and lower atmospheric pressure. The low temperature of high areas may strongly limit foraging and thus food availability. Lower atmospheric pressure reduces fl ight potentia...

Many tropical organisms have narrow altitudinal ranges and therefore may be especially vulnerable to climate change. Parasitoid wasps are no exception, so baseline knowledge about their vulnerability to rising temperatures needs to include analyses of their distributional ranges along elevational gradients. Using museum collections of the parasitoid subfamilies Braconinae and Doryctinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Costa Rica, we tested two alternative hypotheses explaining altitudinal distributions of communities: (i) the Mid‐domain effect, which states that species diversity peaks at middle elevations as a result of species’ random distributions; and (ii) Rapoport's effect, which predicts that species diversity should monotonically decrease with increasing elevation. We found that for the Doryctinae, species diversity decreased monotonically with elevation, while the Braconinae showed two peaks. Species altitudinal ranges increased with elevation in the Doryctinae, as predicted by Rapoport's effect, but not so in the Braconinae. Neither of the subfamilies’ distributions fit the prediction of the Mid‐domain effect. The richness peak at low elevations displayed by the Braconinae and Doryctinae matches the distribution of wood‐boring beetles, which are potential hosts for both taxa. The second peak described in the Braconinae at middle elevations may reflect either better access or higher availability of potential hosts in the Diptera and Lepidoptera at those elevations. Because species in the Doryctinae, on average, had altitudinal ranges that were broader and lower in elevation than species in the Braconinae, our results suggest that species in the Doryctinae might have greater resilience to future temperature increases.

Metasomal elongation is a common feature in species of various parasitoid Hymenoptera, probably due to adaptive morphological convergence to similar parasitoid strategies. The braconid subfamily Doryctinae is perhaps where this feature has evolved the most times independently. Here we recognise a new Neotropical doryctine wasp genus with a petiolate first metasomal tergum, based on molecular and morphological analysis. The phylogenetic affinities of the new genus within Doryctinae and the relationships among six of its described and three potentially cryptic, undescribed species were reconstructed using sequence data from three genes, wingless, 28SrDNA and COI. The new genus is resolved in a clade together with Semirhytus Szépligeti, Johnsonius Marsh and Parallorhogas Marsh. These four genera share vein m-cu of the hind wing slightly curved distally and the propodeum with a distinct lateral and median longitudinal carina and an apical areola. The relationships recovered among the examined species suggest a South American origin for the new genus and its subsequent diversification into Central America and Mexico. Described as Bolivar, gen. nov., this new taxon comprises eight species, two species previously placed within Notiospathius Matthews & Marsh, B. ornaticornis (Cameron), comb. nov., and B. bribri (Marsh), comb. nov., and six new species (B. ecuadorensis, sp. nov., B. helmuthi, sp. nov., B. pittieri, sp. nov., B. risaraldae, sp. nov., B. teres, sp. nov. and B. tuxtlae, sp. nov.).

Notiospathius Matthews & Marsh, 1973 is the second most diverse genus of Doryctinae in the Neotropical region, however, in Colombia only two species have been reported and no studies on the diversity of the genus have been conducted. We present a taxonomic synopsis of the genus from Colombia. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) allowed the taxonomic evaluation of morphometric characters used by other authors and those proposed in the present study to differentiate the species. Forty seven of 104 characters studied are useful to discriminate the species. Twenty three species are reported. The following new records for Colombia are: Notiospathius angustus Marsh, 2002; N. badius Marsh, 2002; N. bicolor Marsh, 2002; N. ninae Marsh, 2002; N. rugonotum Marsh, 2002; N. shawi Marsh, 2002; N. tinctipennis (Cameron, 1887) and N. venezuelae López-Estrada & Zaldívar-Riverón, 2012. The following 14 new species are described: N. alejandroi sp. nov., N. amazonensis sp. nov., N. carmenae sp. nov., N. cundinamarcensis sp. nov., N. farallonensis sp. nov., N. julianoi sp. nov., N. magdalenensis sp. nov., N. marshi sp. nov., N. payae sp. nov., N. putumayensis sp. nov., N. quimbayensis sp. nov., N. tayronensis sp. nov., N. utriae sp. nov., N. vallensis sp. nov. Notiospathius ugaldei Marsh, 2002 is the junior synonym of N. columbianus (Enderlein, 1912); Notiospathius mariachi Reséndiz-Flores, Nunes and Zaldívar-Riverón, 2014 is the junior synonym of N. carolinae (Marsh, 2002); and N. chinanteco Reséndiz-Flores, Nunes and Zaldívar-Riverón, 2014 is the junior synonym of N. rugonotum Marsh, 2002. A comprehensive taxonomic key with illustrations is presented.