Vespas sociais (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) do Estado da Paraíba: diversidade e estudo comportamental

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Elisei, Thiago
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Brasil; Zoologia; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas; UFPB
• Palavras-chave em Português: Manejo de pragas; Polistinae; Semiárido; Caatinga; Semiarid; Plagues management; CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::ZOOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/tede/9821

The study of animal behavior is an important tool for understanding ecological interactions. The identification of behavioral patterns serves as a basis for comparison in different climate and environment situations. Environmental changes may result in behavioral changes. Insects are great models for behavioral studies since they have broad distribution in the globe, which results in interactions with different types of environments, faunas and floras in the search for resources. As to the insects we can highlight the social wasps, characterized in Brazil by the subfamily Polistinae, which have been used for the indication of environmental quality. In addition, the group has been analyzed regarding the possibility of use in programs of integrated pest management; this is because they are effective predators of defoliation caterpillars. The objective of the present study was to record the diversity of social wasps in Paraíba; evaluate the action of environmental variables on the dynamics of the group; compare areas of intercropping to areas of dry forest; and to analyze the behavior of Polistes canadensis, expanding the Caatinga diversity studies and supporting programs aimed at the use of Polistinae in agricultural pest management. The methodology used was the meta-analysis of articles that reported the presence of Polistinae in Paraíba in order to generate a checklist for the state, associated to samplings of species in the Cariri of the Paraiba State and in the municipality of João Pessoa. The samples in the Cariri resulted in 10 species distributed in six genera – two of which were new records. The meta-analysis and samples in João Pessoa resulted in eleven species, with five new records, raising from nine to 20 the diversity of Polistinae in the state. The social wasp community in the intercropped plantation presented greater richness and abundance when compared to the Caatinga. Such result highlights the importance of crop diversity in agriculture, such as that which occurs in crop consortia, since it results in greater attraction of animals to their domain. In the Caatinga, it was verified that abundance and richness of social wasps are influenced by the environmental variables, thus, environmental changes can lead to disappearance of the group in the studied biome. P. canadensis presented results that indicate the potential of its application in integrated pest management, presenting conditions for colony translocations and effective predation of lepidopteran caterpillars – the main agent of damage to agriculture.