List of Species of Social Wasps from Brazil

Abstract

In this chapter, we list the 381 species of social wasps from Brazil and inform the Brazilian state distribution: Agelaia (n = 21 species), Angiopolybia (n = 4), Apoica (n = 9), Asteloeca (n = 3), Brachygastra (n = 13), Chartergellus (n = 10), Charterginus (n = 2), Chartergus (n = 3), Clypearia (n = 7), Epipona (n = 2), Leipomeles (n = 4), Metapolybia (n = 16), Mischocyttarus (n = 144), Nectarinella (n = 2), Parachartergus (n = 13), Polistes (n = 43), Polybia (n = 51), Protonectarina (n = 1), Protopolybia (n = 24), Pseudopolybia (n = 4), and Synoeca (n = 5).

In order to update the list of social wasp species and occurrence states in Brazil originally published by Owain Westmacott Richards (1978) entitled The Social Wasps of the Americas Excluding the Vespinae, new data were compiled from records of biological species; papers published in journals, books, and course completion papers such as theses, dissertations, and monographs; as well as unpublished data from 1978 to 2019. We also used the Brazilian Fauna Taxonomic Catalog (Hermes et al. 2020).

 In our compilation, 21 genera were identified – Agelaia (n = 21), Angiopolybia (n = 4), Apoica (n = 9), Asteloeca (n = 3), Brachygastra (n = 13), Chartergellus (n = 10), Charterginus (n = 2), Chartergus (n = 3), Clypearia (n = 7), Epipona (n = 2), Leipomeles (n = 4), Metapolybia (n = 16), Mischocyttarus (n = 144), Nectarinella (n = 2), Parachartergus (n = 13), Polistes (n = 43), Polybia (n = 51), Protonectarina (n = 1), Protopolybia (n = 24), Pseudopolybia (n = 4), Synoeca (n = 5) – a total of 381 social wasps species are found in Brazil, see Table 16.1.

Table 16.1 List of 382 registered social wasp species in Brazil and their states of occurrence