A founder-controlled, social wasp assemblage, and a recent severe fall in numbers

The 35 species of social wasps surveyed in an 8 ha plot in the Cabeça de Veado valley near Brasilia (1979 and 1997) averaged 17.9 species per survey. From 1/3 to 1/2 of the species disappeared between consecutive surveys and only two were present in every survey. On average, 43% of the 40 species k...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Anthony Raw
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana 2018-07-01
Series:Sociobiology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://periodicos.uefs.br/index.php/sociobiology/article/view/1433
Description
Summary:The 35 species of social wasps surveyed in an 8 ha plot in the Cabeça de Veado valley near Brasilia (1979 and 1997) averaged 17.9 species per survey. From 1/3 to 1/2 of the species disappeared between consecutive surveys and only two were present in every survey. On average, 43% of the 40 species known to inhabit the valley were recorded on each survey. This high rate of turn-over demonstrates that the wasps comprised a “founder-controlled” assemblage. On two more surveys, nine species were recorded in 2010 and ten in 2015; numbers which reflect recent reports on the global trend of losses of social wasps.
ISSN:0361-6525
2447-8067