Neotropical swarm-founding wasps present polygynic colonies and a great variation in relation to caste differentiation, ranging from species in which queens and workers are similar in shape and size to those where variation in shape and size is conspicuous. Canonical discriminant analysis and Bonferroni t-test analysis on morphometric data collected from eight body parts of specimens from nine ...

Ancistrocerus waldenii waldenii (Viereck 1906) is newly recorded from West Greenland. This is a new northern limit for the species.

The genus Gribodia Zavattari, 1912, is newly recorded from Vietnam and China. Gribodia nigra sp. nov. (China, Hainan) is described and figured and G. cupreipennis (Bingham) is redescribed. A key to six known species of the genus is provided.

Social parasites exploit the brood-care behaviour and social structure of one or more host species. Within the social Hymenoptera there are different types of social parasitism. In its extreme form, species of obligate social parasites, or inquilines, do not have the worker caste and depend entirely on the workers of a host species to raise their reproductive offspring. The strict form of Emery...

Animal societies depend on effective defence of group resources. Defensive mechanisms can be costly and may constrain the evolution of social structure. We analysed how exocrine mechanisms of colony defence were affected by the evolution of social complexity and of nest architecture in paper wasps (Vespidae). Eusocial paper wasp species exhibit two discrete grades of eusociality, with new colon...

Wasps (Vespidae) exhibit a range of social complexity, from solitary living to eusocial colonies, and thus are exemplary for studies of the evolutionary origin and maintenance of social behavior in animals. Integral to the definition of eusociality is the presence of reproductive castes, group members that differ qualitatively in their ability to reproduce in a social setting. Behavioral and mo...

In this paper, 20 species of the genus Stenodynerus are reviewed and identified from China, including five new species: Stenodynerus ninglangensis Ma & Li, sp. n., Stenodynerus reflexus Ma & Li, sp. n., Stenodynerus similibaronii Ma & Li, sp. n., Stenodynerus strigatus Ma & Li, sp. n., and Stenodynerus tenuilamellatus Ma & Li, sp. n., and five new records: Stenodynerus baronii Giordani Soika, S...

Several yellowjacket species are important pests in both their native habitat and in areas where they are invasive. Traps that contain one or more chemical attractants to lure insects inside are commonly used to combat these yellowjackets in urban environments. Usually, attractants are placed within the trap and combined indiscriminately, though little is known about how this design influences ...

Morphometric studies performed in several species of Neotropical social wasps from the tribe Epiponini showed that in some species there are marked differences between castes, while other species present highly distinct castes with differences only in ovarian development. This work analyzed females from six colonies of the social wasp Leipomeles dorsata (Fabricius) in which queens (egglayers) a...

The taxonomy of the Vietnamese species of the social wasp subfamily Vespinae is revised. Vespa auraria Smith, 1852, is synonymized under V. velutina Lepeletier, 1836. Vespula koreensis (Radoszkowski, 1887) is recorded as new for Viet Nam, and its color characters are described. A key to vespine species of Viet Nam based on morphological characters is provided.