Female-biased predation is an uncommon phenomenon in nature since males of many species take on riskier behaviours to gain more mates. Several species of sphecid wasps have been observed taking more female than male prey, and it is not fully understood why. The solitary sphecid Isodontia mexicana catches more adult female tree cricket (Oecanthus nigricornis) prey. Previous work has shown that, ...

The stinging wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) are an extremely diverse lineage of hymenopteran insects, encompassing over 70,000 described species and a diversity of life history traits, including ectoparasitism, cleptoparasitism, predation, pollen feeding (bees [Anthophila] and Masarinae), and eusociality (social vespid wasps, ants, and some bees) [1]. The most well-studied lineages of Aculeata a...

A RECENT REVIEW (Bronstein 1992) of the interaction between figs (Ficus species, Moraceae) and their pollinators (Agaonidae: Hymenoptera) evaluated some potential conflicts of interest hat might constrain the evolution of the mutualism. One apparent conflict ensues when female wasps pollinate flowers while depositing their eggs in a fraction of fig ovaries. Some developing seeds are totally con...

Eggs often suffer high levels of predation and, compared with older animals, embryos have few options available for antipredator defence. None the less, hatchlings can escape from many predators to which eggs are vulnerable. I studied early hatching as an antipredator defence of red-eyed treefrog embryos, Agalychnis callidryas, in response to egg predation by social wasps (Polybia rejecta). Red...

braconidae (hymenoptera) communities at high altitudes in alfalfa fields of kerman province (iran) were analyzed. the communities were sampled by sweep netting in 2014 and 2015. samples were taken from three altitudinal transects: 1900–2300 m, 2400–2700 m and 2800–3100 m. a total of 1773 braconid specimens belonging to seven subfamilies were collected. alpha, beta and gamma diversities were ana...

When a colony of the swarm-founding social wasp Polybia occidentals loses its nest to severe weather or predation, the adult population evacuates and temporarily clusters on nearby foliage. Most of the adults remain inactive in the cluster, while foragers bring in nectar and scout wasps search the surrounding area for a new nesting site. After several hours, the scouts stimulate the rest of the...

Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants, and bees) are one of four mega-diverse insect orders, comprising more than 153,000 described and possibly up to one million undescribed extant species [1, 2]. As parasitoids, predators, and pollinators, Hymenoptera play a fundamental role in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems and are of substantial economic importance [1, 3]. To understand the diversificati...

Polydnaviruses (PDVs) are symbionts of parasitoid wasps that function as gene delivery vehicles in the insects (hosts) that the wasps parasitize. PDVs persist in wasps as integrated proviruses but are packaged as circularized and segmented double-stranded DNAs into the virions that wasps inject into hosts. In contrast, little is known about how PDV genomic DNAs persist in host cells. Micropliti...

In morphology, coloration, and size, Pseudabispa wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae) closely resemble mason wasps in the genus Abispa, and their distributions overlap. Although these two genera are among the largest solitary wasps in Australia, the biology of Pseudabispa was not previously known. Field observations from near Katherine, Northern Territory, strongly suggest that P. paragioid...

In the comprehensive rearing of lepidopterans from peninsular India, eleven species of Lycaenidae were parasitized by ten species of wasps. Four new taxa of lycaenid associated microgastrine wasps Parapanteles eros Gupta n. sp., P. arka Gupta n. sp., P. esha Gupta n. sp., and P. regale Gupta n. sp. reared from Chilades pandava (Horsfield), Curetis thetis (Drury), Prosotas dubiosa (Semper), Taju...