Suchergebnisse

Sediado na região de maior biodiversidade do planeta, o Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) abriga milhões de organismos preservados, coletados principalmente na floresta amazônica. Os acervos mais antigos possuem mais de 60 anos e já testemunharam alterações de grande porte na biota amazônica. A coleção mirmecológica recebeu seus primeiros exemplares no início de 1970. Atualmente, essa coleção conta com mais de 300 mil exemplares montados em alfinetes, divididos em 225 gavetas, distribuídas em nove colunas em um corredor inteiro entre os armários compactadores. A coleção em via úmida conta com volume igual e talvez superior. Ao todo, a coleção de Formicidae possui representantes de 13 subfamílias e de 108 gêneros, entre espécies brasileiras e de outros países, bem como de outras regiões biogeográficas. A coleção também recebe bastante destaque ao possuir o maior acervo no mundo de machos da espécie Martialis heureka, com total de 21 exemplares. Considerada uma das cinco maiores coleções do país, os acervos da biota amazônica mantidos pelo INPA são de valor inestimável, reconhecidos em nível nacional e internacional pela sua importância estratégica e representatividade da fauna, flora e microbiota amazônica.

Social wasps are common elements in Neotropics, although even elementary data about this taxon in the Amazon region is partially unknown. Therefore the purpose of this work was to increase the knowledge of social wasp fauna at the Ducke Reserve. One hundred and three species belonging to nineteen genera were recorded. The richest genera were Polybia (28 species), Agelaia (12) and Mischocyttarus (12). Seventy species was collected in active search, 42 species using Malaise trap, 25 suspended trap, 20 attractive trap and nine light trap. Ducke Reserve has one of the highest number of Polistinae wasps in reserves or parks in the Neotropic region.

The discovery of the first case of gynandromorphism in Eulaema meriana (Olivier) is described and illustrated. A specimen from Los Ríos, western Ecuador, discovered in the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (MECN) collection, exhibits mostly male features on the left and female features on the right, except for the jugal comb of the hind wing and terminalia. This finding is compared to other reported cases in orchid bees.

In ants, biology studies are especially important to complete the information aiming to identify species belonging to unresolved or confused taxa in taxonomy. Such observations allow the inclusion of biological data with other characteristics of determined group, something that preserved specimens in collections do not reveal, such as nesting site, foraging time, nuptial flight and especially the relationship between castes, supporting taxonomic analysis and descriptions. Here, nests of three species of the complex foetida of the genus Pachycondyla were observed and collected in three Brazilian localities. Pleometrosis, secondary monogyny and cannibalism were observed for the ant P. inversa. In many ant species, queens newly mated are associated with other queens to establish new colonies, independent of parenthood. In the ant genus Pachycondyla, the reproductive structure varies broadly and aggressiveness seems to be an important factor in structuring the organization and reproductive division in the colony. The occurrence of males in nests of P. inversa and P. curvinodis allowed the description of males. The nuptial flight period was estimated to of P. inversa (August), P. villosa (October) and P. curvinodis (November).

Parachartergus wasps are known by having a very aggressive behavior, especially the large black species with white wings tip, which have painful stings. They exhibit a unique and interesting characteristic, the capacity to venom spraying during the colony defense or self-defense. However, for the Amazonian species Parachartergus fulgidipennis (de Saussure, 1854), little is known about its behavior and nesting. In this way, we tracked and described the nesting site, the numbers of combs, and performed an ad libitum method to record behavioral activities. The nest was fixed vertically on a man-made concrete column, 1.2 m above the ground, measuring 25.0 x 6.0 cm and contained four combs with approximately 74 cells, with 31 eggs, seven larvae, 30 pupae, and almost 42 adults. With a flat thin grayish envelope with weak corrugations, the nest is very similar to the color of the substrate which turn in to really cryptic. The colony defense behavior presented by this species is unaggressive and very docile, suggesting that is not similar as observed for other Parachartergus species.