Apoica (Deuterapoica) arborea de Saussure

PICKETT, KURT M. & WENZEL, JOHN W., 2007, Revision and Cladistic Analysis of the Nocturnal Social Wasp Genus, Apoica Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae; Polistinae, Epiponini), American Museum Novitates 3562 (1), pp. 1-32 : 27

Apoica (Deuterapoica) arborea de Saussure

Apoica arborea de Saussure, 1854: 108 ; 1855: pl. XXVI, fig. 1 . Holotype female, S. America (depository unknown).

Apoica pallida var. arborea: Bequaert, 1943: 116 [partim].

DISTRIBUTION: Bolivia: Santa Cruz; Guatemala (new record) ; Brazil: Acre, Amazonas , Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará , Rondônia; Colombia : Caquetá; Ecuador : Napo; French Guiana; Guyana; Peru : Cuzco, Huánuco, Junín, Loreto; Suriname .

MATERIAL EXAMINED: GUYANE: SAUT- MARIPA, OYAPOCK, 24 Nov 1969, OCT- NOV-1969, ( RMNH, 2 females) . Suriname : Krakka, 19 Sept. 1962, G. v. Vreden ( RMNH, 1, female) ; Suriname : Blakawatra, 12 June 1963 ( RMNH, 2 females) ; Suriname : Sarakraak Dam, 17 Dec. 1963, D.C. Geyskes, ( RMNH, 2 females) ; Suriname , Suriname River, 10 Dec 1962, D.C. Geyskes ( RMNH, 1 female) ; British Guiana : New River, 20–23.iii.1938, C. A. Hudson ( BMNH, B. M. 1979-106, 1 female) ; Colombia : Caqueta, Yuruyaco, M. Cooper ( BMNH, 1 female) ; British Guiana , Kutari Sources, 10.i–10.ii.1936, G. A. Hudson ( BMNH, B. M. 1936-360, 1 female) ; British Guiana : New River, 26–27.iii.1938, C. A. Hudson, ( BMNH, B. M. 1936-370, 1 female) ; Guyana : Imbaimadai, 9.iv.1972, A. Harman ( BMNH, B. M. 1936-308, 1 female) ; Brazil : Mato Grosso, 12d 50m S, 51d 47m W, 1–2.iii.1968, O. W. Richards ( BMNH, B. M.1968-260, 1 female) ; Brazil , Mato Grosso, 12d 50m S, 51d 47m W, 19.x.1968, O. W. Richards ( BMNH, B. M. 1968- 260, 1 female) ; Ecuador : Napo Pastaza, Dureno, 23–30.x.1977, L. E. Penna ( BMNH, B. M. 1978- 293, 1 female) ; British Guiana : Kaieteur: Savana, 8.ix.1937, Richards & Smart ( BMNH; B. M. 1937- 776, 1 female) ; Brasil : Amazonas, Manaus, Reserva Ducke ( BMNH, 1 female) ; Brazil : Xambioa-bo, Sep 1972, F. G. Moreira, ( BMNH, 1 female) ; Brazil : Mato Grosso, 12d 50m S, 51d 47 W, 24.11.1968, O. W. Richards ( BMNH, B. M. 1968- 260, 1 female) ; British Guiana : Issororo, June 1915, G. E. Soika ( BMNH, 1 female) ; PERU: Amazon Camp , Rio Momón, December 1–10, 1982, Edward S. Ross, det. Apoica arborea, H.K. Court, 1995 ( CAS, 9 females) ; Guyana , Valle, Dubulay Ranch, 05d 21m N, 67d 60m W, 11 March 1997, J. H. Hunt, (personal coll. J. H. Hunt, 1 female) ; New record: GUATEMALA: Puerto Barrios, 1– 10.I.1966, J. Geyskes, det. Apoica , arborea, J.v.d. Vecht, 1970 ( RMNH, 2 females) .

A. strigata was confused with A. arborea because, like A. arborea , its metasomal terga are dark with pale apical borders. However, the diagnostic character of Deuterapoica is the biconvex, almost beadlike shape of the flagellomeres ( fig. 21 ). This character is autapomorphic for A. arborea , and so was not included in the cladistic analysis (above). Richards (1978: 261) hinted at this character when he said that Deuterapoica has ‘‘Antennae more knotted beneath.’’ However, as fig. 21 clearly shows, the dorsal surfaces of the flagellomeres are also much ‘‘more knotted’’ than in subgenus Apoica .

Members of subgenus Apoica also lack or nearly lack an anal lobe ( fig. 22 ). Van der Vecht (1972) and Richards (1978) have noted that the anal lobe is reduced in subgenus Apoica . Other characteristics of A. arborea include mesonotal bristles reaching anterior margin, but bristles less than half as long as in other species; metasoma dark brown to black dorsally, brown ventrally; pale posterior margin of metasomal terga thick and prominent on all terga; scutum entirely dark brown to black, never with yellow stripes.

Even though the holotype is believed lost, we are not designating a neotype here, as this action is unnecessary in this case. As in the case of A. pallida , there is no ‘‘complex zoological problem’’. In fact, A. arborea is easily the most monolithic of the species, and its identity is not in question.

Figures

Fig. 1. Ocelli: A, Polistes fuscatus, typical (small); B, Apoica ambracarina, large. Scale bars 5 1.0 mm.

Fig. 21. Flagellomeres: A, Apoica arborea. Flagellomeres are ‘‘knotted’’, or convex both dorsally (1 and 2) and ventrally (3); B, Apoica pallida. Dorsal flagellomeres are either slightly convex (19) or nearly flat (29), as is typical of other vespids. Ventral flagellomeres are nearly flat (39).

Fig. 22. Anal lobe: A, Apoica arborea, anal lobe present; B, Apoica albimacula, anal lobe absent (here severely reduced).