Honey wasps

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Honey wasps
Pseudomasaris coquilletti

Pseudomasaris coquilletti

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Subordination : Waist Wasps (Apocrita)
Superfamily : Vespoidea
Family : Wasps (Vespidae)
Subfamily : Honey wasps
Scientific name
Masarinae
Latreille , 1802

The honey wasps (Masarinae) form a subfamily of the wasps (Vespidae) in the order of the hymenoptera . As an exception within the wasps, they do not supply their offspring with captured insects, but with pollen and nectar collected from flowers . Celonites , the only genus that also reaches Central Europe, is almost unmistakable here due to the wasps' typical black and yellow warning color in connection with culled antennae.

features

Honey wasps are small to medium-sized solitary wasps with a sitting free abdomen ( gaster ), i. H. a small stalk ( petiolus ) is not formed (in contrast to most of the solitary parrot wasps of the Eumeninae ). A longitudinal folding of the wings (eponymous for the wasps ) is not pronounced in most genera, it occurs only in the genus Celonites (with the only Central European representatives) and the Quartinia species group. The subfamily can be distinguished from other wasps by the combination of the following features: The marginal cell M in the forewing (the cell in front of the wing mark ) is slightly removed from the wing edge towards the wing tip, so the radial artery is at least the same length as the wing mark from the edge; the mesoscutum of the trunk section has no longitudinal keel in front of the tegulae ; the midbone femur never has a basal ring. Most species are also characterized by the fact that the outer (distal) segments of the antenna whip , mostly segments 8 to 12 or 13, form an antenna lobe. In addition, only two cubital cells are developed in the forewing (not three as in most other Vespidae).

Which are at most pollen wasp (the tribe Masarini), in adaptation to the diet, as pollinators, mouthparts by forming a suction pipe modified; Such a proboscis is unique within the wasps and evolved convergently to the proboscis of the bees . In contrast to these, only the glossae of the labium are involved in the formation of the trunk . In some species, such as the genus Quartinia , the proboscis is so long that it exceeds the length of the body when it is stretched out, and when it is at rest it is folded back into the labium in a loop. But there are also several species with a short or without a proboscis. The mandibles are not involved in feeding; they are used for digging and nest building, for example. Special rows of bristles on the stipes of the maxilla with their store ( Lacinia and Galea ) are used to collect pollen to stock up on the larvae .

Way of life

Honey wasps are solitary wasps nesting. The only exception is Trimeria howardi , which has a communal way of life in which several females create a common nest, but each only takes care of its own offspring.

Females build a nest by digging an earthworks in either clayey or loamy (exceptionally sandy) soil. To do this, they moisten the soil with water and use the mandibles to form a small globe, which they then carry away or pile up in a tower-like tube around the nest entrance. Some species of the genus Quartinia use empty snail shells for nesting. Instead, many species build tubular brood nests made of clay, which are attached to plants or stones. In addition, the wasp carries clay balls, which are moistened with saliva and water, to the resulting nest, which it then processes into crescent-shaped wall sections. The species that build such clay nests include the Celonites , which also occur in Central Europe, and the North American Pseudomasaris . Honey wasps, like other wasps, but unlike bees, first lay an egg in a finished brood cell and only then store it in provisions. After the short egg phase, five larval stages are passed through, typically in a short time (only one to two weeks). The larva then pupates in a self-spun cocoon. The newly emerging wasp (imago) usually overwinters inside the cocoon and does not hatch until the following spring.

As a special feature within the wasps, honey wasps stock up their nest as food for the larva with a mixture of pollen and nectar from flowers. Many species specialize in only one or a few related plant genera ( oligolectic ). Unlike most bees, the food is transported internally, in the crop. Almost half of the particularly species-rich South African fauna is specialized in a single family, the ice plant . The only North American genus Pseudomasaris specializes in water leaf plants and the genus beard thread ( Penstemon ) of the plantain plants. The Central European honey wasp only collects on mint plants with a shortened upper lip.

distribution and habitat

Honey wasps prefer dry, semi-arid habitats. They are particularly rich in species in regions with a Mediterranean climate . Honey wasps are rapidly becoming rarer in regions with cooler climates. Only one species, Celonites abbreviatus , also reaches Central Europe and is also rare here and restricted to dry and warm (xerothermal) habitats. By far most of the species live in only two regions, the Mediterranean region in Europe and North Africa (more than 60 species, 45 of which are in the genus Celonites ) and the Fynbos and Karoo in the southwest of South Africa (around 145 species). In North America, they are restricted to the west, mostly California (14 species). About 23 species live in South America and almost 30 species in Australia. In Asia the honey wasps are almost completely absent, a few species occur in western Asia, following the Mediterranean occurrences. Only one species lives in Central Europe (a second may have become extinct).

Phylogeny and Systematics

As far as we know today, the family comprises around 300 species in 14 genera. The honey wasps, following the opinion of the British researcher Owain W. Richards in 1962, were mostly captured as an independent family Masaridae with three subfamilies Masarinae, Gayellinae and Euparagiinae. A revision by the American entomologist James Michael Carpenter 1982 then summarized the earlier families Vespidae, Masaridae and Eumenidae in one family Vespidae, of which the Masarinae (like the Euparagiinae ) are a subfamily. This view quickly caught on.

There are two tribes within the family :

  • Masarini Latreille, 1802
  • Gayellini Bradley, endemic to the Neotropics in 1922 , north to Mexico. With two genera, Gayella (in Patagonia) and Paramasaris (in tropical South America).

According to genetic data, the Masarinae are possibly the sister group of the subfamilies Eumeninae , Vespinae and Polistinae taken together. This differs from earlier models mainly in the position of the stenogastrinae , which accordingly would not belong in this clade .

literature

  • Sarah K. Gess: The Pollen Wasps: Ecology and Natural History of the Masarinae. Harvard University Press, 1996. ISBN 978 0674281684 . 340 pages.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bryan N. Danforth & Charles D. Mitchener (1988): Wing folding in the Hymenoptera. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 81 (2): 342-349.
  2. ^ H. Goulet, JT Huber: Hymenoptera of the world: An identification guide to families. Center for Land and Biological Resources Research, Ottawa 1993, ISBN 0-660-14933-8 , pp. 214, 216.
  3. ↑ James Chester Bradley (1922): The Taxonomy of the Masarid Wasps, Including a Monograph on the North American Species. University of California Publications, Technical Bulletins, College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station Entomology 1 (9): 369-464. Download PDF
  4. ↑ HW Krenn ,, V. Mauss, J. Plant (2004): The mouth tools of the Masarinae (Vespidae): Evolution of a proboscis for nectar intake in wasps. Contributions to the hymenopterists' conference in Stuttgart (October 1–3, 2004), abstracts of the lectures and posters, 11–13.
  5. ↑ Volker Mauss, Kenneth Kuba, Harald W. Krenn: Evolution of the multifunctional mouthparts of adult Vespinae. Chapter 14 in: Harald W. Krenn (editor): Insect Mouthparts. Form, function, development and performance. Springer, Cham 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-29653-7 .
  6. ↑ James H. Hunt & Amy L. Toth: Sociality in Wasps. Chapter 4 in: DR Rubenstein & P. ​​Abbot (editors): Comparative Social Evolution. Cambridge University Press, 2017. ISBN 978 1107043398 .
  7. ^ A b c Sarah K. Gess & Friedrich W. Gess: Wasps and bees in southern Africa. SANBI Biodiversity Series 24. SANBI South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, 2014. ISBN 978-1-919976-73-0 .
  8. ↑ a b c Heiko Bellmann & Matthias Helb: Bees, wasps, ants. Kosmos nature guide. Franckh Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1995. ISBN 344006932X . Subfamily Masarinae on pp. 156–161.
  9. ↑ a b Vince Tepidino: Pollen Wasps . USDA Forest Service.
  10. ↑ Bryan N. Danforth, Robert L. Minckley, John L. Neff, Frances Fawcett: The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation. Princeton University Press, 2019. ISBN 978 0691168982 . Pp. 23-24.
  11. ^ A b Sarah K. Gess (1992): Biogeography of the Masarine Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Masarinae), with Particular Emphasis on the Southern African Taxa and on Correlations Between Masarine and Forage Plant Distributions. Journal of Biogeography, 19 (5): 491-503. JSTOR 2845768
  12. ↑ Volker Mauss & Reinholdreiber: Identification key for the folded wasps (Hymenoptera: Masarinae, Polistinae, Vespinae) of the Federal Republic of Germany. DJN German Youth Association for Nature Observation, Göttingen 1994. ISBN 3-923376-17-0 .
  13. ↑ Volker Mauss (2013): Description of Celonites andreasmuelleri sp.n. (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Masarinae) from the Middle East with a key to the Palaearctic species of the C.abbreviatus-complex of the subgenus Celonites s. str. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 31: 79-95. doi: 10.3897 / YEAR 31.4235
  14. ^ V. Mauss & R. Prosi (2013): First record of the pollen wasp Celonites rugiceps BISCHOFF 1928 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Masarinae) from Central Europe. Linz Biological Contributions 45 (1): 697–701.
  15. ↑ James Michael Carpenter (2001): Checklist of Species of the Subfamily Masarinae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). American Museum Novitates no.3325, 40 pages. doi : 10.1206 / 0003-0082 (2001) 325 <0001: COSOTS> 2.0.CO; 2
  16. ^ Owain Westmacott Richards (1962): A revisional study of the Masarid wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespoidea). British Museum (Natural History), London 1962.
  17. ↑ James Michael Carpenter (1982): The phylogenetic relationships and natural classificition of the Vespoidea (Hymenptera). Systematic Entomology 7: 11-38. doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.1982.tb00124.x
  18. ↑ James Michael Carpenter (1988): The phylogenetic system of the Gayellini (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Masarinae). Psyche 95: 211-242.
  19. ↑ Sarah Bank, Manuela Sanna, Christoph Mayer, Karen Meusemann, Alexander Donath, Lars Podsiadlowski, Alexey Kozlov, Malte Petersen, Lars Krogmann, Rudolf Meier, Paolo Rosa, Thomas Schmitt, Mareike Wurdack, Shanlin Liu, Xin Zhou, Bernhard Misof, Ralph S. Peters, Oliver Niehuis (2017): Transcriptome and target DNA enrichment sequence data provide new insights into the phylogeny of vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata: Vespidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 116: 213-226. doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2017.08.020