Angiopolybia obidensis ( Ducke, 1904 )

Barroso, Paulo Cézar Salgado, Somavilla, Alexandre, Broad, Gavin R., Menezes, Rodolpho Santos Telles & Oliveira, Marcio Luiz De, 2024, Contributing to the understanding of Angiopolybia Araujo, 1946 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae): a new species, and descriptions of the nest of A. obidensis and male of A. zischkai, Zootaxa 5536 (2), pp. 315-324 : 319

Angiopolybia obidensis ( Ducke, 1904)

( Figs 12–14 )

Nest. Although the nest of A. obidensis could not be collected due to its location in a cave protected by environmental law ( Fig. 12 ), certain characteristics can still be described. The nest is approximately 13 cm high and 9 cm wide, and connected to the substrate by a 3 cm diameter base. The envelope is oval-shaped, made of flexible paper with long fibers, and has an entrance about 0.8 cm wide that does not project downward as a tube. The general color of the nest is amber with some brown fibers ( Fig. 13 ). Additionally, the overlapping combs of an abandoned nest can be seen in Fig. 14 .

The nest of A. obidensis differs from the typical form of A. pallens by having an oval-shaped envelope and lacking a tubular projection at the entrance. These features also appear to differ from those of A. zischkai , based on the comments by Valverde et al. (2019) in the identification key to social wasps of Costa Rica, that the nest envelope is like an inverted flask. However, the nest of A. obidensis resembles that of A. paraensis , despite the brief descriptions provided by Schulz (1903) and Ducke (1910), as noted by Barroso et al. (2022).

Comments. The nest of A. obidensis was found in a cave in the Presidente Figueiredo Municipality of Brazil (Caverna Refúgio do Maroaga, 2°03’03.6”S 59°58’14.0”W). It was attached to the wall at a height of about 2.2 meters above the ground. This location resembles the one described by Schulz (1903), where a nest of A. paraensis was found beneath a large stone park table in what is now Rodrigues Alves Park, Belém, Brazil. The nests of these species might be difficult to find due to their nesting preferences, as they build nests in protected environments and on rocky substrates, which are uncommon in the Amazon Forest. Another possibility is that these species nest in cavities, not necessarily in rocky substrates, making their nests difficult to locate, similar to most species of Agelaia Lepeletier ( Wenzel 1998).

Figures

FIGURES 12–14. Nests of Angiopolybia obidensis (Ducke). 12. Location where the nests were found. 13. Occupied nest. 14. Abandoned nest.