Review of the paper wasps of the Parapolybia indica species-group (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Polistinae) in eastern parts of Asia

Saito-Morooka, Fuki, Nguyen, Lien T. P., Kojima, Jun-Ichi (2015): Review of the paper wasps of the Parapolybia indica species-group (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Polistinae) in eastern parts of Asia. Zootaxa 3947 (2): 215-235, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3947.2.

TAXONOMIC NOTES ON THE HOVER WASP GENUS EUSTENOGASTER (VESPIDAE, STENOGASTRINAE), WITH DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW SPECIES FROM SUMATRA ISLAND, INDONESIA

Wasps of the genus Eustenogaster van der Vecht, 1969, with 17 species currently recognized, are distributed from the Indian subcontinent in the west to the Philippines, Sulawesi Island and Java Island in the east. Two new species of hover wasp genus Eustenogaster (E. multifolia sp. nov., E. sumatraensis sp. nov.) are described from specimens collected in Sumatra Island. The female of E. vietnamensis occurring in Vietnam are described for the first time. The lectotypes of Paravespa eva Bell, 1936 and Ischnogaster ornatifrons Cameron, 1902 are designated. The new taxonomic status is proposed for Stenogaster eximioides Dover and Rao, 1922 as a good (=valid) species of Eustenogaster. The synonymy of Ischnogaster ornatifrons Cameron, 1902 with Eustenogaster micans (de Saussure, 1852) has been confirmed. A revised key to species and a taxonomic and distributional checklist of all the species of Eustenogaster are provided

Genetic Structure and Potential Environmental Determinants of Local Genetic Diversity in Japanese Honeybees (<i>Apis cerana japonica</i>)

<div><p>Declines in honeybee populations have been a recent concern. Although causes of the declines remain unclear, environmental factors may be responsible. We focused on the potential environmental determinants of local populations of wild honeybees, <i>Apis cerana japonica</i>, in Japan. This subspecies has little genetic variation in terms of its mitochondrial DNA sequences, and genetic variations at nuclear loci are as yet unknown. We estimated the genetic structure and environmental determinants of local genetic diversity in nuclear microsatellite genotypes of fathers and mothers, inferred from workers collected at 139 sites. The genotypes of fathers and mothers showed weak isolation by distance and negligible genetic structure. The local genetic diversity was high in central Japan, decreasing toward the peripheries, and depended on the climate and land use characteristics of the sites. The local genetic diversity decreased as the annual precipitation increased, and increased as the proportion of urban and paddy field areas increased. Positive effects of natural forest area, which have also been observed in terms of forager abundance in farms, were not detected with respect to the local genetic diversity. The findings suggest that <i>A</i>. <i>cerana japonica</i> forms a single population connected by gene flow in its main distributional range, and that climate and landscape properties potentially affect its local genetic diversity.</p></div

Locations of sites (<i>numbers</i>) where <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> workers were collected.

<p>Borders (<i>broken lines</i>) between prefectures are shown.</p

Effects of environmental propertie and collection month on local genetic diversity in <i>Apis cerana japonica</i>.

<p>Coefficients for standardized explanatory variables estimated in a model with the lowest Akaike’s information criterion are shown.</p

Genetic variation in father and mother populations inferred from <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> workers at each locus and at multiple loci.

<p>Genetic variation in father and mother populations inferred from <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> workers at each locus and at multiple loci.</p

Effects of environmental properties and of collection month on local genetic diversity in <i>Apis cerana japonica</i>.

<p>Environmental properties are longitude (a, b, c, d), annual precipitation (e, f, g, h), annual mean of the daily mean temperature (i, j, k, l), and paddy field (q, r, s, t) and urban areas (u, v, w, x) at the sites. Collection month (m, n, o, p) is also shown. Diversity and heterozygosity are plotted for the fathers at 139 sites and mothers at 63 sites. Predictions (<i>lines</i>) pertaining to diversity and heterozygosity were obtained from the explanatory variables in models with the lowest Akaike’s information criterion, when other explanatory variables are given as mean values.</p