Occurrence and nesting behavior of social wasps in an anthropized environment

Some effort has been made concerning the measurement of the social biodiversity of wasps in Brazil. However, few approaches were made regarding how these taxa have adapted their nesting behavior to anthropic mixed environments. Thus, the present work aimed to survey the occurrence of social wasps in an anthropic area and their relationship with different types of nesting substrates. Increasing the knowledge of social wasps in anthropic areas may allow us to develop strategies for their conservation and management. Twenty long-term surveys were made at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto campus, Sao Paulo State. During the searches, we collected information about wasp species and nesting substrate. A total of 20 species of eight genera were identified, and a total of 431 active colonies were registered. Epiponini was the tribe that expressed the most species richness. On the other hand, Mischocyttarini was represented by more active colonies. whether compared to the other species which agreed with the idea of preference of anthropic environments by independent founding wasps. Nesting behavior was associated with eight substrate categories. In general, we observed that some species may express certain plasticity regarding to their nesting substrate preference, whereas some expressed certain specificity. These findings may be related to the fact that some species are less sensitive to urban areas and then express a plastic behavior concerning to where they start their nests. Facing the increase of current urbanization process and, consequently, habitat loss, this type of study contributes toward a better understanding of how these insects are affected and behave in altered environment. (AU)