Polistes
| Polistes | ||||||||||||
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Polistes fuscatus |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the tribe | ||||||||||||
| Polistini | ||||||||||||
| Lepeletier , 1836 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Polistes | ||||||||||||
| Latreille , 1802 |
Polistes is a genus of the family of wasp global distribution. A distinction is made between 221 species and 96 subspecies (as of 2014), 11 of which occur in Europe (an additional three in the eastern Mediterranean plus an American that was introduced in Spain). It is the most species-rich genus of the social wasps.
features
Polistes species are medium-sized, relatively slender wasps. They can be distinguished from other social wasps of the subfamily Vespinae (real wasps) in that the first segment of the free abdomen (behind the " wasp waist ") is bell-shaped with a narrow base, which means that the free abdomen is generally spindle-shaped. In addition, the hip joint (coxa) of the hind legs does not have a longitudinal keel on the upper side. In the Old World they are also easiest to distinguish from other genera of the field wasps by the structure of this segment, which in Polistes is located behind the constriction, i.e. has no recognizable stalk ( petiolus ). For all other species, the opening of the propodeum (the muscle slit where the guest attaches) is angularly limited, while in other genus it is rounded. In the species of the Old World, the slit is also always narrower than in the related genera. What distinguishes most solitary wasps is the non-split claws of the leg links and the lack of so-called parategula (lobed protrusions of the mesoscutum on the side of the tegulae ).
The European species (of the sub-genus Polistes s. Str.) All have the typical wasp color of yellow bandages and spots on a black background and are therefore very similar to the real wasps . Species from other regions are sometimes colored differently, often yellow or yellow-brown with brownish markings.
Biology and way of life
All Polistes species are social insects with eusocial social behavior ; that means joint procurement of food, cooperative brood care and coexistence of animals of several generations. As is typical for relatives, they build nests out of a paper-like substance made of chewed wood fibers. At Polistes, these always consist of a single honeycomb plate with a small handle on the surface. There is never a nest shell. The population strength of Polistes is always small to moderate, it does not exceed about 75 animals per nest. Nesting takes place in different ways within the genus, with several strategies also occurring within a species. Either a young, fertilized queen founds a new nest alone, the brood of which she takes care of for a while until the first generation of workers has hatched (haplometrosis), or several young queens found a nest together ( pleometrosis ), one in the dominant hierarchy the other ( n) suppressed (there are exceptions in some East Asian species). Alternatively, young queens either try to take over the nest of another field wasp when the builder is temporarily absent, or they kill it. In three species of southern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea region (formerly regarded as a separate genus or sub-genus Sulcopolistes ), this social parasitism is obligatory; they no longer produce their own workers, but let the workers of the host species look after their offspring.
The hatched workers establish an individual hierarchy of dominance among themselves through aggressive interactions, which is later maintained through ritualized threatening gestures. You will recognize yourself individually based on the facial drawing. Females of higher rank, starting with the queen, eat the eggs that other females may lay. If the queen is lost, the highest-ranking worker takes over the nest and begins laying eggs, with male offspring always being the result because the eggs are not fertilized. However, mating can also occur afterwards, making her a real replacement queen.
The colonies and nests of the genus in the temperate latitudes are always annual, with only the young queens overwintering and establishing a new nest in the following year. Tropical species can occur year round.
As far as is known, field wasps of the genus Polistes feed almost exclusively on predatory insects and other arthropods, which they also feed to their brood. As soon as there are workers, the queen no longer takes part in the procurement of food. Occasionally, however, it continues to leave the nest in order to obtain building material for new cells.
Phylogeny and Taxonomy
The genus Polistes turned out to be monophyletic in all morphological and genetic investigations . The genus probably originated in the Old World. An origin in tropical East Asia is probable, but cannot be proven with certainty according to the genetic data. Contrary to previous analyzes, the North American species (of the subgenus Aphanilopterus in the broader sense) form a monophyletic group; this is an indication that immigration occurred only once. A settlement of North America can be developed from South America, although some species must have migrated back to South America from here.
Four sub-genres are currently recognized within the genre:
- Subgenus Gyrostoma Kirby, 1828 (21 species)
- Subgenus Polistella Ashmead, 1904 (84 species)
- Subgenus Polistes Latreille, 1802 p. st. (23 kinds)
- Subgenus Aphanilopterus Meunier, 1888 (92 species)
The numerous sub-genres (cf.) that were additionally differentiated earlier in the New World are mostly no longer recognized today.
The following species occur in Europe, all of which belong to the subgenus Polistes :
- Polistes albellus Giordani Soika, 1976 ( syn. Polistes helveticus Neumeyer, 2014). described from Mongolia as a subspecies of Polistes foederatus , described again in 2014 from the Alpine countries and southern Central Europe, the synonymy was noted in 2015. Widespread from the east of France to the Russian Far East.
- Polistes associus Kohl, 1898. Steppe field wasp. Southern Europe, north to Switzerland, east to Azerbaijan.
- Polistes atrimandibularis Zimmermann, 1930. Social parasite. Southern and southern Central Europe, north to southern Germany, east to Iran and Armenia.
- Polistes austroccidentalis van Achterberg & Neumeyer, 2017. ( syn.Polistes semenowi auctt., Nec Morawitz, 1889). Southwest Europe and neighboring North Africa, north to Switzerland.
- Polistes biglumis (Linnaeus, 1758). Mountain wasp. all of Europe, north to Scandinavia, east to Central Asia.
- Polistes bischoffi Weyrauch, 1937. Petite field wasp. Southern Europe, north to Switzerland and Austria, east to Turkey.
- Polistes dominula (Christian, 1791). Gallic field wasp. Southern and Central Europe (here the most common species of the genus), east to Central Asia and India, introduced in America.
- Polistes foederatus Kohl, 1898. Eastern Mediterranean region, from northeast Italy to Greece, east to Azerbaijan.
- Polistes gallicus (Linnaeus, 1767). western Mediterranean region.
- Polistes nimpha (Christian, 1791). Heath Field Wasp. Europe, north to Finland. East to China and the Russian Far East.
- Polistes semenowi Morawitz, 1889 ( syn.Polistes sulcifer Zimmermann, 1930). Social parasite. Southeast and southern central Europe, east to central Asia. (In Germany only an old find)
Introduced in Europe and also naturalized in Spain (subgenus Aphanilopterus )
- Polistes major Palisot de Beauvois, 1818. southern USA to Brazil and Peru (including the Caribbean), in Europe so far in Oviedo (northern Spain).
swell
- Christian Schmid-Egger, Kees van Achterberg, Rainer Neumeyer, Jérôme Morinière, Stefan Schmidt (2017): Revision of the West Palaearctic Polistes Latreille, with the descriptions of two species - an integrative approach using morphology and DNA barcodes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). ZooKeys 713: 53-112. doi: 10.3897 / zookeys.713.11335 (open access).
Individual evidence
- ↑ James M. Carpenter & Lien Phuong Thi Nguyen (2003): Keys to the genera of social wasps of South-East Asia (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Entomological Science 6: 183-192.
- ↑ James M. Carpenter (2004): Synonymy of the Genus Marimbonda Richards, 1978, with Leipomeles Möbius, 1856 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae; Polistinae), and a New Key to the Genera of Paper Wasps of the New World. American Museum Novitates 3465. 16 pages.
- ^ Rita Cervo (2006): Polistes wasps and their social parasites: an overview. Annales Zoologici Fennici 43: 531-549.
- ↑ JM Jandt, EA Tibbetts, AL Toth (2014): Polistes paper wasps: a model genus for the study of social dominance hierarchies. Insectes Sociaux 61: 11-27. doi: 10.1007 / s00040-013-0328-0
- ^ Mary Jane West Eberhard (1968): The Social Biology of Polistine Wasps. Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan no.140. 101 pages.
- ↑ Kurt M. Pickett, James M. Carpenter, Ward C. Wheeler (2006): Systematics of Polistes (Hamenoptera: Vespidae) with a phylogenetic consideration of Hamilton's haplodipolidy hypothesis. Annales Zoologici Fennici 43: 390-406.
- ↑ Bernardo F. Santos, Ansel Payne, Kurt M. Pickett, James M. Carpenter (2015): Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the paper wasp genus Polistes (Hymenoptera: Vespidae): implications for the overwintering hypothesis of social evolution. Cladistics 31: 535-549. doi: 10.1111 / cla.12103 .
- ^ OW Richards: The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History) Publication no.785, 1978. ISBN 0-565-00785-8
- ↑ Christian Schmid-Egger, Kees van Achterberg, Rainer Neumeyer, Jérôme Morinière, Stefan Schmidt (2017): Revision of the West Palaearctic Polistes Latreille, with the descriptions of two species - an integrative approach using morphology and DNA barcodes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) . ZooKeys 713: 53-112. doi: 10.3897 / zookeys.713.11335 (open access).
- ^ Rainer Neumeyer (2014): Another field wasp species for Switzerland: Polistes associus Kohl, 1898 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Entomo Helvetica - Natural Sciences Switzerland 7: 164–168
- ↑ Stefan Tischendorf (2013): A reference to a historical occurrence of the social parasitic fold wasp Polistes sulcifer (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in Germany. Bembix 36: 38-41.
- ^ Leopoldo Castro, Andrés Arias, Antonio Torralba-Burrial (2013): First European records of an alien paper wasp: Polistes (Aphanilopterus) major Palisot de Beauvois, 1818 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in northern Spain. Zootaxa 3681 (1): 089-092. doi: 10.11646 / zootaxa.3681.1.7 .