Asteloeca ujhelyii (Ducke)

CARPENTER, JAMES M., NASCIMENTO, FÁBIO SANTOS DO, MATEUS, SIDNEI, NOLL, FERNANDO B. & KOJIMA, JUN-ICHI, 2004, A Revision of the Genus Asteloeca (Hymenoptera: Vespidae; Polistinae), American Museum Novitates 3427, pp. 1-12 : 9-11

Asteloeca ujhelyii (Ducke) , revised status

Polybia Ujhelyii Ducke, 1909: 626 , female— [ Brazil] ‘‘ Teffé ( Haut Amazone)’’ (lectotype Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris [examined]).

Occipitalia traili morph ujhelyi [!]; Richards, 1978: 199.

In coloration this species is very distinct from A. traili: The reddish­orange color of the metasomal terga leaves their yellow lateral margins inconspicuous, unlike the strongly contrasting black and yellow metasoma of A. traili . The synonymy of A. ujhelyii with A. traili by Richards (1978) was perhaps due to mixing of samples from different nests, as suggested in the Background section. We and colleagues have now seen many colonies from Acre, the state in which Hamilton’s nests were collected, and they are always one color form or the other, even if the nests with the different forms are very close to one another. The specimen listed by Richards (1978: 199) as ‘‘intermediate’’ from the colony from Amazonas had the metasoma ‘‘red­brown much darker’’. We have seen a specimen of A. traili from a colony from Acre, on the campus of the Universidade Federal do Acre, in which the metasoma is tinged with dark reddish­brown, but this in no way resembles A. ujhelyii: The yellow markings of the specimen are also reduced, so that it is darker compared to A. ujhelyii than most specimens of A. traili . Orlando Silveira (in litt.) has also seen a specimen in the collection of the Museu Goeldi (MG) from Cruzeiro do Sul, collected by W. D. Hamilton on 23 February 1968, which also has the metasoma marked with reddish, but as he stated, ‘‘it does not look as ‘intermediary’ between traili and ujhelyii .’’

MALE: The genitalia are illustrated in figure 15. Aedeagus with apex short and dark, its ventral margin very finely serrate, ventral apodemes long, dorsal apodeme incompletely sclerotized; cuspis and digitus on mesal side densely covered with short pubescence; paramere in lateral view with ventral margin rounded. Raw’s (1985: figs. 18–22) illustrations of the genitalia of Asteloeca are evidently based on A. ujhelyii , as the paramere is rounded ventrally in lateral view.

FINAL INSTAR LARVA: Specimens examined: four larvae from a nest collected at Acre, Xapuri , 9 September 2001 (Fábio S. do Nascimento). Additions to and differences from Kojima (1998) are as follows. Maxilla with ill­defined scalelike spicules on outerapical surface; galea with ill­defined scale like spicules except for apex (fig. 17). Area around labial palpi with sparse, ill­defined scalelike spicules (fig. 18). Atrium of spiracle sometimes with sparse, minute spicules .

DISTRIBUTION: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Carpenter has seen the specimens recorded by Richards (1978). In an unpublished manuscript, preserved in the Natural History Museum, London, Richards recorded A. traili from Colombia: Putumayo, and Sar­ miento (1994: 359) published this record, but according to Cooper (in litt.), who collected the specimen, this record refers to A. ujhelyii . Cooper specifies that the locality in Putumayo is Mocoa. New records are Brazil: Acre, Fazenda Catuaba, 20 km east of Rio Branco , 10 ° 04 ̍ 36 ̎ S 67 ° 37 ̍ 40 ̎ W, July 2001 (Fábio S. do Nascimento) [colony in RP] ; Acre, Rio Branco, 9 September 2001 (Fábio S. do Nascimento ) [colony in RP; 2♀ and 23 in AMNH] ; Acre, Xapuri , 10 ° 49 ̎ S 68 ° 22 ̍ W, 9 September 2001 (Fábio S. do Nascimento) [colony in RP; 2♀ in AMNH] ; Colombia: Putumayo, Villa Garzón , 400– 550 m, 29 December 1987 (Martin Cooper) [♀ in coll. Cooper] ; Ecuador: Napo, Panacocha , 12 March 1998 (Martin Cooper) [♀ in coll. Cooper] ; Napo, Muyuna , 5 km W of Tena, 500 m, 18 August 1981 (Martin Cooper) [♀ in coll. Cooper] ; Peru: Huánuco, Tingo Maria ( Rio Huallaga ), September 1947, 700 m (W. Weyrauch), 679­A [♀ in AMNH] ; Loreto, Rio Sucusari at Rio Napo, 25 December 1990 (James M. Carpenter and John W. Wenzel), Nest 901225­8 [colony: 2♀ dissected by F. B. Noll, 23 and nest in AMNH] .

A paralectotype of A. ujhelyii in the MG, not mentioned in Carpenter (1999), is a female lacking the metasoma, labeled according to Silveira (in litt.) ‘‘ Brazil, Estado do Amazonas’ ’ (typewritten), ‘‘ Teffe´ ’’ (handwritten) and the numbers 631, 120 .

REMARKS: Nascimento et al. (in press) demonstrated the occurrence of cyclical oligogyny in this species, and that it is behaviorally mediated, through conflicts among queens which lead to queen elimination. Some further information on the biology of this species appears in Noll et al. (in prep.), who included this species in their study of caste evolution. Like species in related genera ( Metapolybia , Clypearia , and Synoeca ), morphological differences between queens and workers are slight, and intermediates (i.e., uninseminated individuals with some mature oocytes) are absent.