Comparative aspects of the biology of five Auplopus species (Hymenoptera; Pompilidae; Pepsinae) from Brazil

Abstract

This study was carried out at the Parque Municipal das Arauca´rias, in the municipality of Guarapuava, state of Parana´, southern Brazil, from December 2001 to December 2004. Sixty nests belonging to five Auplopus species were collected using trap-nests. The nest cells of all species were built with mud and shaped like a barrel or cylinder, mostly in linear arrangement. Differences between species lie in the colour of the mud and the way in which they organize the mud pellets during the construction of the cells. Few vestibular and intercalary cells were built. The number of cells varied according to the species, never surpassing six cells per nest. We observed a great variation between the five species related to sex ratio and the number of generations per year. Some species presented a delayed life cycle with juveniles entering diapause, others presented an additional short life cycle with no diapause.

Notes on the bionomy of two spider wasp species in an urban forest fragment in Brazil

“…brasiliensis, since only one nest was caught. The multivoltinism in the genus Auplopus was already observed for other species by Zanette et al (2004) for A. militaris (Lynch-Arribalzaga) and by Buschini et al (2007) for five unidentified species of Auplopus, with evidence that those species are multi-voltine with at least three generations per year, a pattern that matched the observed for A. cf. rufipes in this study.…”

“…rufipes and A. cf. brasiliensis made nests parallel to the substrate as usual for other Neotropical species (Zanette et al, 2004;Buschini et al, 2007); however A. cf. rufipes, made leant cells which differ from the species studied in the aforementioned studies.…”

“…Also, cell orientation differed markedly from those reported by Zanette et al (2004), of which brood cells faced the bottom of the trap. The different arrangements between species may be driven by space or protection of inner cells from parasites, since females are usually reared from the innermost brood cells (Buschini et al, 2007). The mud layer over some brood cells are an additional protective barrier, blocking parasites from accessing to the inside of the cell.…”

“…We still need to fully understand how these interactions are taking place in biomes that have been ravaged by human activity such as the Atlantic Forest. Unfortunately, little data is available for these organisms, especially for wasps like the Pompilidae (Zanette et al, 2004;Buschini et al, 2007;Waichert & Pitts, 2012). This study represents a step towards filling this gap, presenting data on the natural history of Auplopus cf.…”

Trap-nesting biology of an ectoparasitoid spider wasp, Auplopus subaurarius (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae): the importance of wooded environments for niche generalist species

“…Despite the environmental importance of Auplopus species, many of them have not yet been studied for their basic ecological aspects, which prevents the development of more applied studies (Quijano-Cuervo et al, 2021). One of these species is Auplopus subaurarius Dreisbach, 1963, a solitary wasp, which builds their nests in preexisting cavities, where the females construct a varied number of brood cells, which have a barrel shape and are made of clay (Buschini et al, 2007;Nether et al, 2019;Buggenhagen, 2016). Auplopus subaurarius has been found nesting in the Araucaria Forest, one of the phytophysiognomies of the Atlantic Forest biome (Buschini et al, 2007;Buschini and Woiski, 2008;Iantas et al, 2017;Cambra et al, 2017Cambra et al, , 2021.…”