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Ropalidia Fasciata
''Ropalidia fasciata'', a common paper wasp, is a wide-ranging species that is distributed from India to the Lesser Sunda Islands, Palawan, and Ryukyu Islands, occupying the northern edge of ''Ropalidia''s larger distribution. These primitively eusocial wasps are unique in that they do not exhibit the strict matrifilial, single-queen social structure found in many species of social insects. Instead, colonies are founded based on associations between several females, or 'foundresses'. Taxonomy and phylogeny ''Ropalidia fasciata'' belongs to one of the largest wasp taxa. Roughly 180 other species belong to the genus ''Ropalidia''. In discussion, ''R. fasciata'' is often grouped with and compared to ''Ropalidia marginata''. ''R. fasciata'' was classified by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804. Description and identification ''R. fasciata'' appears with a red-brown body with yellow stripes, and some black and yellow markings. The species are variable in color pattern, displaying th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animals, and established the basis for the modern insect classification. Biography Johan Christian Fabricius was born on 7 January 1745 at Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig, where his father was a doctor. He studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762. Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoëga to Uppsala, where he studied under Carl Linnaeus for two years. On his return, he started work on his , which was finally published in 1775. Throughout this time, he remained dependent on subsidies from his father, who worked as a consultant at Frederiks Hospita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polistes
Wasps of the cosmopolitan genus ''Polistes'' (the only genus in the tribe Polistini) are the most familiar of the polistine wasps, and are the most common type of paper wasp in North America. Walter Ebeling coined the vernacular name "umbrella wasps" for this genus in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in reference to the form of their nests. It is also the single largest genus within the family Vespidae, with over 300 recognized species and subspecies. Their innate preferences for nest-building sites leads them to commonly build nests on human habitation, where they can be very unwelcome; although generally not aggressive, they can be provoked into defending their nests. All species are predatory, and they may consume large numbers of caterpillars, in which respect they are generally considered beneficial. The European paper wasp, ''Polistes dominula'', was introduced into the US about 1981 and has quickly spread throughout most of the country, in most cases ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vespidae
The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as ''Polistes fuscatus'', ''Vespa orientalis'', and ''Vespula germanica'') and many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually last only one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, while others are notable predators of pest insect species. The sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ichneumonid
The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family (biology), family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species currently described. However, this likely represents less than a quarter of their true Species richness, richness as reliable estimates are lacking, along with much of the most basic knowledge about their ecology, Species distribution, distribution, and evolution.Quicke, D. L. J. (2015). The braconid and ichneumonid parasitoid wasps: biology, systematics, evolution and ecology. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Ichneumonid wasps, with very few exceptions, attack the immature stages of Holometabolism, holometabolous insects and spiders, eventually killing their hosts. They thus fulfill an important role as regulators of insect populations, both in natural and semi-natural systems, making them promising agents for Biological p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monogyny
Monogyny is a specialised mating system in which a male can only mate with one female throughout his lifetime but the female may mate with more than one male. In this system the males generally provide no paternal care. In many spider species that are monogynous, the males have two copulatory organs, which allows them to mate a maximum of twice throughout their lifetime. As is commonly seen in honeybees, ants and certain spider species, a male may put all his energy into a single copulation, knowing that this will lower his overall fitness. During copulation monogynous males have adapted to cause self genital damage or even death to increase their chances of paternity. Definition and distinction Monogyny is one of several mating systems observed in nature, in which a male mates only once; females, however, may mate with multiple males. It is important to emphasize the distinctions between monogyny and polyandry, and monogyny and monogamy. Polyandry is a mating system by which a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polygynous
Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. Some scholars see the slave trade's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio as a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa. Polygyny is most common in a region known as the "polygamy belt" in West Africa and Central Africa, with the countries estimated to have the highest polygamy prevalence in the world being Burkina Faso, Mali, Gambia, Niger and Nigeria. In the region of sub-Saharan Africa, polygyny is common and deeply rooted in the culture, with 11% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa living in such marriages (25% of the Muslim population and 3% of the Christian population, as of 2019). Polygyny is especially widespread in West Africa, with the countries estimated to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polistinae
The Polistinae is a subfamily of eusocial wasps belonging to the Family (biology), family Vespidae. They are closely related to the more familiar wasps (“yellowjackets” as they are called in North America) and true hornets of the subfamily Vespinae, containing four tribes. With about 1,100 species total, it is the second-most diverse subfamily within the Vespidae, and while most species are tropical or subtropical, they include some of the most frequently encountered large wasps in temperate regions. The Polistinae are also known as paper wasps, which is a misleading term, since other wasps (including the wasps in the subfamily Vespinae) also build nests out of paper, and because some epiponine wasps (e.g., ''Polybia emaciata'') build theirs out of mud, nonetheless, the name "paper wasp" seems to apply mostly, but not exclusively, to the Polistinae, especially the Polistini. Many polistines, such as ''Polistes fuscatus,'' ''Polistes annularis'', and ''Polistes exclamans'', m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oviposition
The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typically its form is adapted to functions such as preparing a place for the egg, transmitting the egg, and then placing it properly. For most insects, the organ is used merely to attach the egg to some surface, but for many parasitic species (primarily in wasps and other Hymenoptera), it is a piercing organ as well. Some ovipositors only retract partly when not in use, and the basal part that sticks out is known as the scape, or more specifically oviscape, the word ''scape'' deriving from the Latin word '' scāpus'', meaning "stalk" or "shaft". In insects Grasshoppers use their ovipositors to force a burrow into the earth to receive the eggs. Cicadas pierce the wood of twigs with their ovipositors to insert the eggs. Sawflies slit the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reproductive Suppression
Reproductive suppression is the prevention or inhibition of reproduction in otherwise healthy adult individuals. Quote is from p. 513. It includes delayed sexual maturation (puberty) or inhibition of sexual receptivity, facultatively increased interbirth interval through delayed or inhibited ovulation or spontaneous or induced abortion, abandonment of immature and dependent offspring, mate guarding, selective destruction and worker policing of eggs in some eusocial insects or cooperatively breeding birds, and infanticide (see also infanticide (zoology)), and infanticide in carnivores) of the offspring of subordinate females either by directly killing by dominant females or males in mammals or indirectly through the withholding of assistance with infant care in marmosets and some carnivores.Saltzman, W., Leidl, K.J., Salper, O.J., Pick, R.R., Abbott, D.H. (2008) ''Hormones and Behavior'' 53: 274-286. The ''Reproductive Suppression Model'' argues that "females can optimize their li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mischocyttarus
''Mischocyttarus'' is a very large, primarily Neotropical genus of social wasps with a few species found also in the Nearctic region. It is the only member of the tribe Mischocyttarini; the asymmetrical tarsal lobes of ''Mischocyttarus'' separates it from the tribe Epiponini. ''Mischocyttarus'' is the largest genus of social wasps, containing over 200 species and subspecies. ''Mischocyttarus'' wasps build a relatively simple, single comb nest. Sometimes, the nest is built within a meter of the nest of '' Polistes carnifex''. Foraging adults bring nectar and small caterpillars back to the nest to feed to the developing larvae which are individually housed in separate cells in the nest. Not all nests have a female with developed ovaries. Their biology is similar to that of species in the genus ''Polistes''. However, ''Mischocyttarus'' appear to show considerably more social and reproductive flexibility than ''Polistes''. Species * ''Mischocyttarus achagua'' Silveira, 2013 * '' M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miscanthus Sinensis
''Miscanthus sinensis'', the eulalia or Chinese silver grass, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to eastern Asia throughout most of China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Description It is an herbaceous perennial grass, growing to tall, rarely , forming dense clumps from an underground rhizome. The leaves are tall and 0.3–2 cm broad. The flowers are purplish, held above the foliage. This plant is the preferred structure for the nesting of some species of paper wasps, such as '' Ropalidia fasciata''. Nomenclature The Latin specific epithet ''sinensis'' means "from China", though the plant is found elsewhere in eastern Asia. Forms and varieties *''M. sinensis'' f. ''glaber'' Honda *''M. sinensis'' var. ''gracillimus'' Hitchc. *''M. sinensis'' var. ''variegatus'' Beal *''M. sinensis'' var. ''zebrinus'' Beal Cultivation It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate climates around the world. It has become an invasive species in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paper Wasp
Paper wasps are Vespidae, vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct nests made of gray or brown papery material. Some types of paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps, due to the distinctive design of their nests."Paper Wasp" Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006. Species The name "paper wasps" typically refers to members of the Vespidae, vespid subfamily Polistinae, though it often colloquially includes members of the subfamilies Vespinae (hornets and yellowjackets) and Stenogastrinae, which also make nests out of paper. Twenty-two species of ''Polistes'' paper wasps have been identified in North America and approximately 300 species have been identified worldwide. The most common ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
