''Agelaia'' is a genus of Neotropical

social wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s (family Vespidae), with species from Mexico to northern Argentina. Fifteen of the 31 described species are found in Brazil. These species are swarm founders that nest in cavities. The nest generally is without an envelope. The genus includes the species '' A. vicina'' that sometimes nests in attics in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and requires the services of the fire department for removal of the colony that can number more than 1,000,000 stinging wasps. It also includes '' A. pallipes'' that is a ground-nesting species found in South America and is considered one of the most aggressive wasps in the region. These wasps are considered aggressive compared to other wasp species, and inflict a painful sting. The main component of the venom is Agelotoxin, a Phospholipase A2 direct haemolysin, which may cause a severe reaction in some patients.

References

* Zucchi, R., Sakagami, S. F., Noll, F. B., Mechi, M. R., Mateus, S., Baio, M. V., et al. (1995). ''Agelaia vicina'', a swarm-founding polistine with the largest colony size among wasps and bees (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). ''Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 103''(2), 129–137. * Hermes Marcel Gustavo, Köhler Andreas. The genus ''Agelaia'' Lepeletier (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. ''Rev. Bras. entomol.'' erial on the Internet 2004 Mar ited 2008 May 17; 48(1): 135–138. Vespidae Taxa named by Amédée Louis Michel le Peletier {{Vespidae-stub