The Effect of Forest Fragmentation on Polistinae

Abstract

The forest fragmentation is caused by natural or anthropic actions, which affect negatively the biota and the environmental services rendered by biological diversity. However, there is little information on the reflex of these actions in many different groups of animals, such as social wasps, which are abundant and significantly present in neotropical environments, causing a major impact in the communities they live due to their role in food webs. As their natural enemies, wasps are important in the control of agricultural plagues; in the natural environment, they are nectar collectors, frequent flower visitors, and potential pollinators of many species of plants. These factors justify studies which would evaluate in what way the forest fragmentation acts on these insects biodiversity. This study was carried out in four fragments, each of a different size, located in the municipalities of Inconfidentes and Ouro Fino, in the south of the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), where the phytophysiognomy is the Montane Semideciduous Seasonal Forest. The research was carried out between December 2016 and March 2018, with the same sampling collection for each fragment, totalizing 104 sampling days. In total, 28 species and 51 colonies were recorded in the four areas and a greater richness for the greatest fragment (F4). The conclusion reached was that the size and heterogeneity of the fragment have an important role in maintaining the richness of social wasps.

Social wasps fauna (Vespidae) of semideciduous seasonal forest in southern Brazil

“…This is due to the large number of species included in the genus and the fact that many environments and locations have not yet been sampled, even in areas of the Atlantic Forest, the best inventoried Brazilian biome [9] . Despite this, the number of Mischocyttarus species observed in the present study was low, since the genus usually stands out in inventories [6,26] . This may be a reflection of species having small and cryptic colonies, which makes their registration difficult [27] , especially in a dense forest environment as in the areas of the present study, a type of environment that makes it difficult to register colonies for all wasp genera, which may explain the results obtained [26] .…”

“…These insects perform various environmental services, such as predation of agricultural pests [1,3,4] and pollination, also acting as bioindicators of riparian forest conservation [5] . However, the natural environments changing, such as forest fragmentation, are negatively affecting their communities [6,7] . In Brazil, these environmental changes have been frequent in different biomes, and as a result, there is an increase in studies aimed at knowing the social wasps geographical distribution and richness, due to their importance in ecosystems [8,9] .…”

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“…At the FEENA, roDrigueS & maCHaDo (1982) made a twelve-year study and recorded 33 species and 10 genera of social wasps, demonstrating the expressive richness of this forest, close to studied site. Studies carried out in areas with a certain degree of impact, in Brazil, also resulted similarly (marqueS et al 1993;lima et al 2000;marqueS et al 2005;alvarenga et al 2010;auaD et al 2010;SantoS & PreSley 2010;De Souza et al 2011;bueno et al 2019).…”

Influência de fragmentos florestais sobre a nidificação de vespas sociais (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) em cafeeiro

“…Sabe-se que, em geral, a vegetação é o principal substrato para a fundação de colônias de vespas sociais sendo que os ambientes heterogêneos podem aumentar a coexistência de um número maior de espécies . Diversos estudos mostram que ambientes estruturalmente complexos possuem mais nichos para o estabelecimento e sobrevivência de um número maior de espécies (Lawton, 1983;Santos et al, 2000;Santos et al, 2007;Souza et al, 2010;Bueno et al, 2019).…”