Wasps

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Wasps
Dead specimen of the common roller wasp Tiphia femorata

Dead specimen of the common roller wasp Tiphia femorata

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Subordination : Waist Wasps (Apocrita)
Partial order : Voices (Aculeata)
Superfamily : Vespoidea
Family : Wasps
Scientific name
Tiphiidae
Leach , 1815
Subfamilies

The wasps (Tiphiidae) are a family of the Vespoidea , the further relationship of the wasps and ants , within the hymenoptera . Around 1,500 species have been described worldwide, 6 of which are found in Central Europe . The German name comes from the fact that the antennae of the females roll up after death, a feature that also applies to the wasps ; despite the very similar German name the tiphiidae are not with the leaf tiphiidae ( Blennocampinae from the family of Real sawflies related).

features

It is a relatively basal and morphologically diverse family of wasps, so it is difficult to give common characteristics for all of them. In many species the male is winged and the female is wingless. The sexes are often completely dissimilar, the male is often much larger and completely different in color, and the male often prefers other habitats. The assignment of individually found males or females to one another is therefore a particular problem in this family. In many species, the sexes are linked to one another in the copula; the male then flies around with the female attached and sets it down again in a suitable habitat, the whole thing was called "phoretic copulation". Although the togetherness then appears clear, on closer examination about 10% mismatches (partners of different species affiliation) were observed. In numerous cases, especially in the case of tropical species, the species descriptions of males and females can hardly be assigned to one another, in some cases they have even been described in different genera.

The Tiphiidae are predominantly small to medium-sized wasps, between 5 and 25 millimeters in length. They are usually black in color, but the males in particular are often drawn in high contrasts with red or yellow. The free abdomen (metasoma) usually sits directly behind a constriction ("wasp waist"), only rarely has a short stalk (myzininae). As is typical of Vespoidea, the females have 12 and the males 13 antennae, but in some species the second member is hidden and can easily be overlooked. Typical of almost all species, the mid-breast (the mesosternum) is drawn out backwards into two small lamellas that cover the attachment of the mid-hips, but these can be reduced. The winged species also have a small, lobed part of the wing membrane without veins (the Jugal lobes) in common, which is missing in many related families. Males are often recognizable at first glance by their narrow, cylindrical free abdomen, which is much longer than the central section, and by a characteristic thorn-shaped hook (hypopygium, transformed eighth sternite) that sits on the last recognizable sternite of the abdomen and points upwards . Wingless females can be distinguished from those of the Mutillidae by the structure of the thorax. This has at least one, sometimes two transverse sutures (between the pro, meso- and metathorax) and is never fused uniformly. The females almost always have heavily thorny middle and rear legs that are used for digging. Another characteristic feature is a longitudinal fold or a small keel (occasionally replaced by a row of bristles) on the second tergite of the free abdomen. The Scoliidae are easiest to distinguish by the design of the wing membrane - the longitudinal folds characteristic of this family in the end section are always missing in the wasps.

Systematics

Although there are opposing views, the majority of scientists consider the wasps to be a cohesive, monophyletic unit. According to morphological characteristics, sister group is possibly a common taxon from Sapygidae and Mutillidae . The Pompilidae and Rhopalosomatidae are also closely related. This grouping is not supported in molecular examinations (according to homologous DNA sequences).

The tiphiidae previously with some other families of aculeata summarized to the superfamily "Scolioidea" ( "scoliidae-like"). Despite some similarities, some of these families are not closely related.

The wasps are divided into the following subfamilies:

  • Anthoboscinae : Widespread, absent in Europe and East Asia. Both sexes are winged and black in color.
  • Thynninae : Only in Australia and South America, rich in species. Extreme sexual dimorphism .
  • Diamminae . Only one kind, Diamma bicolor ("Blue Ant"). This lives in Australia, it parasitizes on mole crickets (the species Gryllotalpa coarctata )
  • Brachycistidinae . 61 species, found exclusively in North America. The females are wingless and brown in color. Nocturnal.

The following three subfamilies are also represented in Central Europe; indicated are the Central European species:

Some authors also recognize that some subfamilies are their own families.

Way of life

A species of Zaspilothynnus when mating

The larvae of tiphiidae live as parasitoids of beetle larvae, mostly larvae of scarab beetles ( white grubs ), the species of the family Methochinae in sand beetles , some species ( Myzinum andrei , Poecilotiphia rousselii ) at Black beetle larvae . The female roller wasps dig in the earth for the ground-dwelling beetle larvae, which are paralyzed with several stings before an egg is laid on the host . The larva goes through five stages in which it sucks out the host and finally kills and eats up, after which it spins itself into a cocoon . The following behavior was observed in the well-studied Tiphia popilliavora , which was introduced to North America : The female digs in the ground until a scarab larva is found; it prefers the third (last) larval stage, but may also adopt the second. She climbs on the beetle larva and repeatedly stabs it from below into the thorax until it is paralyzed; the beetle larva regains its mobility after 20 to 40 minutes. After kneading the area with her mandibles for a few minutes and tearing open the integument, she glues an egg between the fifth and sixth abdominal segment of the larva. It then often inflicts another wound on the larva in order to take in hemolymph for itself. After 5 to 6 days the larva hatches, which initially only extends the front end out of the egg shell. It then sucks some hemolymph from the beetle larva before each molt . Only the last larval stage then begins to kill the beetle larvae and to eat them completely, with the exception of the head capsule and the legs. After 18 to 30 days, the larva spins a cocoon next to the remains of its host and hibernates in it. It pupates and does not hatch until the following year.

The native species usually have a one-year generation cycle. The adult animals of the flightable species or sexes feed on honeydew and flower nectar. They are widespread on open disc flowers , especially of umbellifers .

Economic importance

Since wasps are predominantly parasitoids of scarab larvae (grubs), which are themselves considered pests, they are themselves considered beneficial insects. However, it has not yet been used or cultivated in biological pest control. A number of species have been artificially introduced to North America to control the Japanese beetle that has been introduced there. Although some species are naturalized today and are by no means rare, the economic success of this measure was limited.

Fossils

Fossil wasps are very rare. Six species were found as compression fossils in Oligocene limestone (Florissant, Colorado, USA and Sikhote-Ahlin Mountains, Russia). Another species has been described from Cretaceous amber from Myanmar .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Denis J. Brothers & Albert T. Finnamore (1993): Superfamily Vespoidea. In: Henri Goulet, John T. Huber (editors): Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. Center for Land and Biological Resources Research, Ottawa. Ontario Research Branch. Agriculture Canada Publication 1894 / E. ISBN 0-660-14933-8
  2. ↑ Christian Schmidt-Egger & Frank Burger (1998): Critical index of the German species of the Mutillidae, Myrmosidae, Sapygidae, Scoliidae and Tiphiidae (Hymenoptera). Bembix 10: 42-49 download
  3. ↑ Till East: The Phoretic Copulation of Thynninae in on Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective (Hymenoptera, Tiphiidae). In: Linz biological contributions. Volume 31, Issue 2, Linz 1999, pp. 755–762 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  4. ↑ Erik M. Pilgrim, Carol D. Von Dohlen, James P. Pitts (2008): Molecular phylogenetics of Vespoidea indicate paraphyly of the superfamily and novel relationships of its component families and subfamilies. Zoologica Scripta Volume 37, Issue 5: 539-560. doi : 10.1111 / j.1463-6409.2008.00340.x
  5. ↑ Denis J. Brothers (1999): Phylogeny and evolution of wasps, ants and bees (Hymenoptera, Chrysidoidea, Vespoidea and Apoidea). Zoologica Scripta, 28, 1 ± 2: 233-249.
  6. ↑ z. B. John Heraty, Fredrik Ronquist, James M. Carpenter, David Hawks, Susanne Schulmeister, Ashley P. Dowling, Debra Murray, James Munro, Ward C. Wheeler, Nathan Schiff, Michael Sharkey (2011): Evolution of the hymenopteran megaradiation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 60: 73-88. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2011.04.003
  7. ↑ Roberto A. Pantaleoni & Mario Boni Bartalucci (2011): New record of Tentyria Latreille, 1802 (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) as host of Poecilotiphia rousselii (Guérin, 1838) (Hymenoptera, Tiphiidae). Biodiversity Journal 2 (4): 207-208.
  8. ↑ Kevin M. O'Neill (2001): Solitary Wasps: Behavior and Natural History. Cornell University Press (Comstock Publishing Associates | Cornell Series in Arthropod Biology). ISBN 0801437210 .
  9. ↑ Darryl Ramoutar & Ana Legrand (2007): Survey of Tiphia vernalis (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae), a Parasitoid Wasp of Popillia japonica (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), in Connecticut. The Florida Entomologist Vol. 90, No. 4: 780-782.
  10. ^ AP Rasnitsyn (1986): Review of the fossil Tiphiidae, with description of a new species (Hymenoptera). Psyche 93: 91-102.
  11. ↑ Michael S. Engel, Jaime Ortega-Blanco, Daniel J. Bennett (2009): A Remarkable Tiphiiform Wasp in Mid-Cretaceous Amber from Myanmar (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae). Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 112 (1 & 2): 1-6. doi : 10.1660 / 062.112.0201

Web links

Commons : Tiphiidae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files