Two new species of social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) from Roraima, Northern Brazil

Two new species of social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) from Roraima, Northern Brazil¹

Anthony Raw^I,II

^IDepartamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasília. 70910-900 Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brasil

^IIPresent address: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz. 45650-000 Ilhéus, Bahia, Brasil

ABSTRACT

The females and nests are described of two new species of social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) from dry evergreen forest on the Ilha de Maraca, Roraima, Brazil. Mischocyttarus (Monocyttarus) maracaensis sp.n. closely resembles M. flavicornis Zikan, 1935 in morphology and coloration. Polybia (Myrapetra) roraimae sp.n. is a member of the P. occidenlalis (Olivier, 1791) group of species.

Key words: Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Mischocyttarus, Polybia, Amazônia, Brazil, systematics

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The work was part of the Maraca Project 1987-88 (Secretaria Especial para o Meio Ambiente de Brasilia, Royal Geographical Society of London and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas de Amazonia, Manaus). i thank these institutions for their support. My special thanks are to Dr. Gillian Thompson, University of Stirling, who discovered the nests of several species of wasps and showed me the first nest

of P. roraimae

sp.n.

Recebido em 26.V.1999; aceito em 14.IX.1999

• Iczn (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature). 1985. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. London, British Museum (Natural History), 3^rd ed., 338p.
• Raw, A. 1992. The forest: savanna margin and habitat selection by Brazilian social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), p.499-511. In: P.A. Furley; J.A. Ratter & J. Proctor (Eds). The Nature and Dynamics of the Forest-Savanna Boundary. Chapman and Hall, 616p.
• ______. 1998. Social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) of the Ilha de Maraca, p. 307-321. In: J.A. Ratter & W. Milliken (Eds). Maraca: The Biodiversity and Environment of an Amazonian Rainforest. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons, 508p.
• Richards, O.W. 1978. The Social Wasps of the Americas. London, British Museum (Natural History), 580p.

1

Work financed by the Royal Geographical Society of London.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  19 June 2009
• Date of issue
  1999

History

• Accepted
  14 Sept 1999
• Received
  26 May 1999