Potter wasps (or
mason wasps) are a cosmopolitan
waspThe term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers,...
group presently treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past as a separate family,
Eumenidae.
Most eumenine species are black or brown, and commonly marked with strikingly contrasting patterns of yellow, white, orange, or red (or combinations thereof), but some species, mostly from tropical regions, show faint to strong blue or green metallic highlights in the background colors.
Potter wasps (or
mason wasps) are a cosmopolitan
waspThe term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers,...
group presently treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past as a separate family,
Eumenidae.
Recognition
Most eumenine species are black or brown, and commonly marked with strikingly contrasting patterns of yellow, white, orange, or red (or combinations thereof), but some species, mostly from tropical regions, show faint to strong blue or green metallic highlights in the background colors. Like most vespids, their wings are folded longitudinally at rest. They are particularly recognized by the following combination of characteristics:
1) Mesoscutum with a posterolateral projection known as parategula;
2) Tarsal claws cleft;
3) Hind
coxaThe arthropod leg is a form of jointed appendage of arthropods, usually used for walking. Many of the terms used for arthropod leg segments are of Latin origin, and may be confused with terms for bones: coxa , trochanter , femur, tibia, tarsus, ischium, metatarsus, carpus, dactylus The arthropod...
e with a longitudinal dorsal carina or folding, often developed into a lobe or tooth;
4) Fore wing with 3 submarginal cells.
Biology
Eumenine wasps are diverse in
nestA nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's eggs and/or provide a place to live or raise offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building...
building. The different species may either use pre-existing cavities (such as
beetleBeetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are classified in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal kingdom, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms...
tunnels in wood, abandoned nests of other
hymenoptera Hymenoptera is one of the largest orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. The name refers to the heavy wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek ὑμήν : membrane and πτερόν : wing...
or even man-made holes like old nail holes and even screw shafts on electronic devices) that they modify in several degrees, or they construct their own either underground or exposed nests. The nest may have one to multiple individual brood cells. The most widely-used building material is mud made of a mixture of earth and regurgitated water, but many species use chewed plant material instead.
The name "
potter waspPotter wasps are a cosmopolitan wasp group presently treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past as a separate family, Eumenidae.-Recognition:...
" derives from the shape of the mud nests built by species of
EumenesEumenes of Cardia was a Greek general and scholar. He participated in the wars of the Diadochi as a supporter of the Macedonian Argead royal house.He was a native of Cardia in the Thracian Chersonese...
and similar genera. It is believed that
Native AmericanThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
s based their pottery designs upon the form of local potter wasp nests. [von Frisch, 1974].
All known eumenine species are predators, most of them solitary
mass provisionersMass provisioning is a term used in entomology to refer to a form of parental behavior in which an adult stocks all of the food for each offspring in a small chamber prior to laying the egg...
, though some isolated species show primitive states of social behaviour and
progressive provisioningProgressive provisioning is a term used in entomology to refer to a form of parental behavior in which an adult feeds its larvae directly after they have hatched, feeding each larva repeatedly until it has completed development...
.
When a cell is completed, the adult wasp typically collects
beetleBeetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are classified in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal kingdom, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms...
larvaA larva is a young form of animal with indirect development, going through or undergoing metamorphosis ....
e,
spiderSpiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s or
caterpillarCaterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered pests in agriculture...
s and, paralyzing them, places them in the cell to serve as food for a single wasp larva. As a normal rule, the adult wasp lays a single egg in the empty cell before provisioning it. Some species lay the egg in the opening of the cell, suspended from a thread of dried fluid. When the wasp larva hatches, it drops and start to feed upon the supplied prey for a period of time that normally last some few weeks before
pupaA pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages; embryo, larva, pupa and imago...
ting. The complete life cycle may last from a few weeks to more than a year from the egg until the adult emerges. Adult potter wasps feed on floral nectar.
Taxonomy
They are the most diverse subfamily of
vespidThe Vespidae are a large , diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps 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,...
s, with more than 200 genera, and contain the vast majority of species in the family. The overwhelming morphological diversity of the potter wasp species is reflected in the proliferation of genera described to group them in more manageable groups. You can see here the list of
potter wasp generaThe overwhelming morphological diversity of the potter wasp species is reflected in the proliferation of genera described to group them in more manageable groups. At the present time, more than 200 genera are recognized as valid. You can see here the list of potter wasp...
.
External links
- http://www.organismnames.com/
- Eumenes spp., potter wasps of Florida on the UF
The University of Florida is a public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant major research university located on a campus located in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States. The university traces its origins to 1853, and has continuously operated on its present Gainesville campus since the fall...
/ IFASThe University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information...
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