Estudos comparados sobre morfologia de imaturos e comportamento de Sphecinae (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)

Abstract

The subfamily Sphecinae is composed of 19 genera and about 700 species widespread in the world. This group is very diverse and complex behaviourally. The objective of the present work is comparatively studying the immature morphology and the nesting behaviour of species of Sphecinae, in a way to contribute to the understanding of the phylogeny of the group and discussing about hypotheses related to the evolution of the behavioural pattems. A key to genera and supra-generic categories based on last instar larvae, cocoon, and biological aspects is formulated. A description of the subfamily and diagnoses of the tribes and subtribes based on larvae are presented. Twenty nine characters of larva, two characters of egg, and four characters of cocoon were selected and examined through a cladistics analyses. Due the occurrence of a lot of missing values of egg and cocoon in the characters matrix, two analyses were separately carried out, one only with larval characters and other combined characters of larva, egg, and cocoon. The analyses of parsimony based only in larval characters generates 24 equally most parsimonious trees (length = 45; consistency índex = 0,73; retentíon índex = 0,89; consistency índex rescaled = 0,65) and the analyses combined characters of larva, egg, and cocoon generates 384 equally most parsimonious trees (comprimento = 52; índice de consistência = 0,75; índice de retenção = 0,89; índice de consistência reescalonado = 0,65). The phylogeny based on immature morphology is entirely congruent with those based on adult morphology. Sphecinae, Sceliphrini, Sceliphrina, Sphecini + Ammophilini, Prionychina, and Ammophilini are corroborated as monophyletics lineages by apomorphies of larvae and, in some cases, of cocoons. On the other hand, Chloriontina, Podiina, and Sphecina are not corroborated by apomorphies oflarva or cocoon. The behaviour of six species of Sphecinae in the tribes Sphecini and Ammophilini is described: Sphex opacus; S. dorsalis; Prionyx thomae; P. fervem.; Ammophihila sp. 1; and Eremnophila binodis. Twenty characters, the most related to ncst construction and prey manipulation, are used. Three hundred eight equally most parsimonious trees were generated (length = 34; consistency index = 0,73; retentíon index = 0,86; consistency índex rescaled = 0,63). The phylogeny based on behavioural characters is entirely congruent with those based on adult and larval morphology. Based on the knowledge of the phylogeny ofthe group, hypothesis on the evolution ofthe behaviour in Sphecinae are discussed.