Captura de presas por vespas sociais: espécies predadas e prioridades de pesquisa no Brasil

Abstract

Social wasps are of great importance when considering the ecological and economic role they can play. As they are predators, they contribute to the population control of their prey in natural and man-made environments, and can act as pest control in agricultural crops and urban gardens, being an alternative to the use of synthetic phytosanitary products. The aim of the study was to carry out a detailed analysis of publications on species preyed on by social wasps in Brazil and to highlight research priorities on this topic. In the literature review, publications indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases were selected and works selected by cross-referencing, with keywords related to the theme and only studies carried out in Brazil. 26 publications were analyzed, most of them scientific articles (84.61%). Most of the works were published from 1980 to 1989, followed by a decrease in the next decades and a final increase in the last decade, with the years 1986 and 1994 being the most productive. There is a concentration of studies in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, most of which are carried out in urban and rural areas. No pattern was identified in the duration of the studies and no sampling effort. We found that Polistes versicolor and Polybia ignobilis were the most studied species. Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Hemiptera respectively, were the prey orders most captured by social wasps. The species of prey most predated were Chlosyne lacinia saundersii (Doubleday, 1847) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith, 1797) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Alabama argilacea (Hübner, 1823) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Ascia monuste orseis (Latreille, 1819) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) and Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders, 1844) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae). This study sought to compile the species already observed as prey for social wasps and to indicate points of importance in carrying out future studies in Brazil.