Parapolybia escalerae ( Meade-Waldo, 1911 )

K. Ali, Wand, Ameen, Sirwan M. & Ahmed, Soran H., 2023, New Record and Observations of Parapolybia escalerae (Meade-Waldo, 1911) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) in Kurdistan, Iraq, Zootaxa 5230 (1), pp. 97-100 : 97-98

Species: Parapolybia escalerae ( Meade-Waldo, 1911)

( Fig. 1 )

Polybia escalerae Meade-Waldo, 1911: 109 , Female.— Iran

Specimen examined and its distribution in Kurdistan-Iraq: Kanizhalla village (34.949526 N, 45.766046 E) 5 F, Penjwen (35.634938 N, 45.948148 E) 3 F, Darbandikhan (35.086871 N, 45.695632 E) 1 F, Qara Dagh (35.276764 N, 45.377715 E) 1 F, Dokan (35.795588 N, 44.974828 E) 4 F, Choman (36.616656 N, 44.876900 E) 9 F, Halsho (36.211574 N, 45.254974 E) 1 F, and Ranya (36.321017 N, 44.796033 E) 3 F.

General distribution: Eastern ( Iran, Pakistan) and Western Palaearctic ( Turkey) ( Yildirim & Kojima, 1999; Rahmani et al., 2020).

The wasps were observed in colonies and building nests, while some adults were recorded singly in previous studies ( Fig. 2a ). Although Kemal & Koçak (2015) observed eight individuals on wet ground, this did not indicate nesting or colony behavior. Nests were observed in rock cliffs, in old ruined houses, and under rocks and soil. Saito et al. (2015) observed nests from five of the nine species within the Parapolybia indica species group. Although P. escalerae nests are basically similar to these other species, we observed that P. escalerae collect sugary substances in their nests, which local people harvest as food mainly in September and October ( Fig. 2b ). It is treated like honey and is more expensive than honeybee honey. All the captured specimens in this study were female. We think that their social life imposes much more responsibility on the females than the males, so they were much more abundant in the field. The adults are common and can be easily collected, particularly near water sources in summer ( Fig. 1 ), but their biology, behavior, and food products are still poorly understood and need further study.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Parapolybia escalerae adult females on the water source.

FIGURE 2. Parapolybia escalerae: (a) nest, (b) stored sugary food product within combs.