Atividade em ninho de Mischocyttarus Nomurae Richards (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) no período de pré estação chuvosa

Abstract

Some insects from the hymenoptera order are considered social insects, organized into castes and cooperating for the survival of the colony. Mischocyttarus nomurae wasps are representatives of the Vespidae family and are endemic in Brazilian territory. These animals can be found living in human buildings. There are some gaps in these insects’ biology that were not understood so far, such as the nest activity dynamics. This study had as main objective to understand If there were higher activity periods during the day and correlate this activity with the nest’s reproductive characteristics. 15 nests were recorded from 7am to 5:15pm, totalizing 120 hours recorded. The video analysis were done on the VLC media player software, in which all movements were noted. The statistical analysis were made on Excel and R software Thereby, a positive but weak correlation between the activity and the number of adults on the nest was found (correlation=0,619 P=0,013). In addition, there was a big variation between nests, associated with people transit. Still under this bias, the day period with the lowest activity mean was in 12am, that coincided with the hottest time of the day. Lastly, the characteristic with the biggest influence on the activity was the nest size. Therefore, there was not any activity peak in M. nomurae, but there was a increase in the nest activity right after the hottest period of the day, associated with the strong foraging. Furthermore, the number of cells was more significative for the nest activity than the presence of immature or adults.