Potter wasp

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Potter wasp
Potter wasp 20100722.jpg
Ancistrocerus species [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Vespidae
Subfamily: Eumeninae
Diversity
Almost 200 genera and 3000 species

Potter wasps (or mason wasps), the Eumeninae, are a cosmopolitan wasp group presently treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past as a separate family, Eumenidae.

Contents

Mud dauber wasps, which also build their nests with mud, are in the families Sphecidae and Crabronidae and not discussed here.

Recognition

Partial dorsal view of the thorax of Cephalastor estela showing the position of tegulae and parategulae relative to the mesoscutum and pronotum Mesoscutum Cephalastor estela.PNG
Partial dorsal view of the thorax of Cephalastor estela showing the position of tegulae and parategulae relative to the mesoscutum and pronotum

Most eumenine species are black or brown, and commonly marked with strikingly contrasting patterns of yellow, white, orange, or red (or combinations thereof), but some species, mostly from tropical regions, show faint to strong blue or green metallic highlights in the background colors. Like most vespids, their wings are folded longitudinally at rest. They are particularly recognized by the following combination of characteristics:

  1. a posterolateral projection known as a parategula on both sides of the mesoscutum;
  2. tarsal claws cleft;
  3. hind coxae with a longitudinal dorsal carina or folding, often developed into a lobe or tooth, and;
  4. fore wings with three submarginal cell.

Biology

A potter wasp nest on a brick wall in coastal South Carolina Potter wasp nest 6734.jpg
A potter wasp nest on a brick wall in coastal South Carolina

Eumenine wasps are diverse in nest building. The different species may either use existing cavities (such as beetle tunnels in wood, abandoned nests of other Hymenoptera, or even man-made holes like old nail holes and screw shafts on electronic devices) that they modify in several degrees, or they construct their own either underground or exposed nests. The nest may have one or several individual brood cells. The most widely used building material is mud made of a mixture of soil and regurgitated water, but many species instead use chewed plant material.

The name "potter wasp" derives from the shape of the mud nests built by species of Eumenes and similar genera. It is believed that Native Americans based their pottery designs upon the form of local potter wasp nests. [2] The female wasp scrapes up mud or dirt with her mandibles and front legs, combining it with water and saliva to form a mud ball she transports back to adds to her nest under construction.

Potter wasp forming a mud ball.

All known eumenine species are predators, most of them solitary mass provisioners, though some isolated species show primitive states of social behaviour and progressive provisioning.

Potter wasp building a nest Eumenide Nestbau.jpg
Potter wasp building a nest

When a cell is completed, the adult wasp typically collects beetle larvae, spiders, or caterpillars and, paralyzing them, places them in the cell to serve as food for a single wasp larva. For example, Euodynerus foraminatus paralyzes the larvae of the poison hemlock moth (A. alstroemeriana). [3] As a normal rule, the adult wasp lays a single egg in the empty cell before provisioning it. Some species lay the egg in the opening of the cell, suspended from a thread of dried fluid. When the wasp larva hatches, it drops and starts to feed upon the supplied prey for a few weeks before pupating. The complete lifecycle may last from a few weeks to more than a year from the egg until the adult emerges. Adult potter wasps feed on floral nectar.

Taxonomy

Potter wasps are the most diverse subfamily of vespids, with almost 200 genera, and contain the vast majority of species in the family (nearly 3,000 species from a total of about 4,500 in the whole family). The overwhelming morphological diversity of the potter wasp species is reflected in the proliferation of genera described to group them into more manageable groups. The subfamily Zethinae was formerly included here, but was removed when it was recognized that it rendered Eumeninae paraphyletic. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Eumenes</i> (wasp) Genus of wasps

Eumenes is a genus of wasps in the subfamily Eumeninae. It is a large and widespread genus, with over 100 species and subspecies occurring worldwide. The genus was first proposed by Pierre André Latreille in 1802, with the type species later designated by Latreille in 1810. All species make jug-like nests out of mud, usually attached to twigs. The larvae are fed with caterpillars.

Brachymenes is a small neotropical genus of potter wasps currently containing two species, the primarily Andean species B. wagnerianus and the lowland species B. dyscherus.

Minixi is a small neotropical genus of potter wasps currently containing 4 species. One species is restricted to Southern United States, Mexico and Central America. The other three species are rather common and widespread through eastern South America.

Pararhaphidoglossa is a moderately diverse neotropical genus of potter wasps.

Sphaeromenes is a small Neotropical genus of potter wasps.

<i>Synagris</i> Genus of wasps

Synagris is an Afrotropical genus of large potter wasps. Several Synagris wasps are strongly sexually dimorphic and males bear notable morphological secondary sexual traits including metasomal lamellar or angular protruding structures and hornlike or tusklike mandibular and/or clypeal projections.

<i>Delta</i> (wasp) Genus of wasps

Delta is an Old World genus of potter wasps with species predominantly distributed through tropical Africa and Asia. Some species are present in the Palearctic region, and a few have been introduced in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. The members of this genus have a long metasomal petiole, like members of the genera Eumenes and Zeta.

<i>Katamenes</i> Genus of wasps

Katamenes is a genus of potter wasps with species distributed in Europe and Africa. When originally named by Edmund Meade-Waldo, Katemenes was monotypic, containing only K. watsoni, but other species have since been moved from Eumenes to Katamenes.

<i>Pseudabispa</i> Genus of wasps

Pseudabispa is an Australian and Papuan genus of potter wasps containing 5 species, one of them subdivided in 4 subspecies.

Knemodynerus is a genus of potter wasps distributed through the Palearctic, Afrotropical, Indomalayan and Australasian regions. The species currently classified in the genus are:

Orientalicesa is a small Indomalayan genus of potter wasps.

Ovodynerus is an Afrotropical genus of potter wasps which contains eleven species.

Labus is an Indomalayan genus of potter wasps. It contains the following species:

<i>Phimenes</i> Genus of wasps

Phimenes is an Indomalayan and Australasian genus of potter wasps. The genus was formerly regarded as a synonym of Delta. The genus was separated from Eumenes by the Italian hymenopterist Antonio Giordani Soika when he elevated division IV of Eumenes, which Saussure had given the name Phi to, to full generic status. However, Giordani Soika noted that the name Phi was preoccupied by a subgenus of the New World polistine genus Mischocyttarus and he therefore chose to compound Phi with Eumenes into Phimenes as the name for the new taxon.

<i>Eumenes fraternus</i> Species of wasp

Eumenes fraternus is a species of potter wasp in the subfamily Eumeninae of the family Vespidae. It is native to the eastern United States and Canada. The female builds a miniature pot out of mud in which it lays an egg and places a live caterpillar. Its developing larva feeds on this whereas the adult wasp feeds primarily on nectar.

<i>Delta emarginatum</i> Species of wasp

Delta emarginatum is a species of potter wasp in the subfamily Eumeninae of the family Vespidae.

<i>Katamenes arbustorum</i> Species of wasp

Katamenes arbustorum is a species of potter wasp in the subfamily Eumeninae of the family Vespidae.

<i>Ancistrocerus nigricornis</i> Species of wasp

Ancistrocerus nigricornis is a species of potter wasp.

Antonio Giordani Soika was an Italian entomologist, ecologist and director of the Civic Museum of Natural History of Venice. He had a long career in which he worked on various groups of insects but much of his work was on the Hymenoptera. He made great contributions to the knowledge of Neotropical wasps, especially potter wasps for which he produced many taxonomic keys and also monographs on the systematics of the wasp family Vespidae.

<i>Ancistrocerus longispinosus</i> Species of wasp

Ancistrocerus longispinosus is a species of potter wasp, belonging to the family Vespidae, subfamily Eumeninae.

References

  1. ↑ Cirrus Digital: Potter Wasp and Mud Pot Nest
  2. ↑ von Frisch, Karl (1974). Animal Architecture. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 55. ISBN   9780151072514.
  3. ↑ McKenna, D.D.; Zangerl, A.R.; Berenbaum, M.R. (2001). "A native Hymenopteran predator of Agonopterix alstroemeriana (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae) in east-central Illinois". Great Lakes Entomologist. 34. Michigan Entomological Society: 71–75 – via CAB Direct.
  4. ↑ PK Piekarski, JM Carpenter, AR Lemmon, E Moriarty-Lemmon, BJ Sharanowski (2018) Phylogenomic Evidence Overturns Current Conceptions of Social Evolution in Wasps (Vespidae). Molecular Biology and Evolution. doi:10.1093/molbev/msy124
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