Nota-Note

Leucospis leucotelus (Hymenoptera: Leucospidae) as a parasitoid of the large carpenter bee Xylocopa lateralis (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Xylocopinae) in Colombia

Leucospis leucotelus (Hymenoptera: Leucospidae) parasitoide de la abeja carpintera grande Xylocopa lateralis (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Xylocopinae) en Colombia

 

LUCIA, Mariano^1,*, WOLFGANG, Hoffmann² & GONZALEZ, Victor H.³

¹ División Entomología, Laboratorios Anexo Museo de La Plata, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. La Plata, Argentina. CONICET, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina. * E-mail: mlucia@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar
² Grupo de Biocalorimetría, Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad de Pamplona. Pamplona, Colombia.
³ Undergraduate Biology Program and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA.

Received 08 - II - 2019 | Accepted 01 - IV - 2019 | Published 27 - VI - 2019 https://doi.org/10.25085/rsea.780204

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RESUMEN. Registramos a Leucospis leucotelus Walker parasitando nidos de Xylocopa (Schonnherria) lateralis Say en Colombia. Además, recopilamos todos los registros previos citados en la bibliografía de especies d eLeucospis asociados a especies de Xylocopa.

PALABRAS CLAVE. Abejas silvestres. Enemigos naturales. Passifora. Polinizadores.

ABSTRACT. We report Leucospis leucotelus Walker parasitizing nests of Xylocopa (Schonnherria) lateralis Say in Colombia. Previous literature records of species of Leucospis associated with species o fXylocopa are summarized.

KEYWORDS. Natural enemies. Passifora. Pollinators. Wild bees.

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Wild bees play a key role as pollinators in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Among bees, species of the large carpenter bees in the genus Xylocopa Latreille (Apidae: Xylocopini) are economically important around the world because they are effective pollinators on diverse crops, including passion fruit (Passifora L., Passiforaceae), sunfowers (Helianthus L., Asteraceae), squash (Cucurbita L., Cucurbitaceae), and tomato (Solanum L., Solanaceae) (e.g. : Gerling et al., 1989; Hogendoorn et al., 2000; Aguiar-Menezes et al., 2002; Sadeh et al., 2007; Keasar, 2010). Due to their large body size and their foraging behavior, including their ability to buzz pollinate, carpenter bees are the most effcient pollinators of many plants of the genus Passifora across the Neotropical region, including Colombia (Caicedo et al., 1993; Camillo, 2003; González

et al., 2009; Silva & Freitas, 2018). As for other bees, various stages of the life cycle of carpenter bees are target of numerous attacks by predators, parasites, and parasitoids of diverse insect families (e.g. : Hurd, 1978; Lucia et al., 2010; Avalos-Hernández et al., 2011; Lucia, 2016).

Chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) in the family Leucospidae Fabricius are common ectoparasitoids of bees. This family consists of 141 species worldwide of medium to large size wasps (4-17 mm in body length) grouped in four genera: Leucospis Fabricius, Micrapion Kriechbaumer, Neleucospis Boucek, and Polistomorpha Westwood. Only species of Leucospis and Polistomorpha occur in South America (Lima & Dias, 2018). Of these two genera, species of Leucospis are common parasitoids of aculeate Hymenoptera [Eumeninae (Vespidae), Pompilidae, Crabronidae and Sphecidae], in particular of solitary bees in the families Apidae and Megachilidae (Boucek, 1974; Gazola & Garófalo, 2003; Grissell, 2007; Madl & Schwarz, 2012; Torretta et al., 2017).

 

Table I. Summary of host records of species of Leucospis parasitizing species of large carpenter bees.

 

To date, only four records of species of Leucospis parasitizing nests of carpenter bees are available (Table I). Thus, the purpose of this work is to document for the frst time the presence of L. leucotelus Walker on nests of X.(Schonnherria) lateralisSay in Colombia. This report is noteworthy considering the scarcity of records documenting Leucospis as parasitoids of these bees and that the biology of most carpenter bees is unknown.

We found a dead wood trunk (8 cm in diameter, 118 cm in length) with 19 nest entrances of X. lateralis in Pamplonita, Norte de Santander, Colombia, from which we captured four adult bees for identifcation, three females (Fig. 1a) and one male. Each nest entrance was elliptical in shape, 9 mm wide and 12 mm long.

In several occasions, we observed leucospid wasps walking slowly over the tree trunk, drumming its surface with their antennae and attempting to introduce their ovipositor into the walls of the trunk. Using the keys of Boucek (1974) and Lima & Dias (2018), we identifed these wasps (three females and one male; Figs. 1b, c) as L. leucotelus Walker , a species that occurs in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guayana, French Guiana, and Brazil (Boucek, 1974; De Santis, 1979). We did not dissect the bee nest to preserve the colony. Thus, we were unable to determine if L. leucotelus successfully parasitized the brood cells of X. lateralis. However, oviposition through the sidewall of the host nest is the usual pattern of attack displayed by species of Leucospis on twig-nesting host species (Gazola & Garófalo, 2003). Our brief behavioral observations of L. leucotelus at nests of X. lateralis, as well as records of leucospid wasps on nests of carpenter bees, reinforce the idea of L. leucotelus being a brood parasite in nests of X. lateralis.

 

Fig. 1. Habitus of species of Xylocopa and Leucopsis. a. female of Xylocopa (Schonnherria) lateralis Say; b-c. Leucospis leucotelus Walker female and male respectively. Scale bars: 2 mm

Leucospid leucotelusWalker

Material examined: 3?, 1?. COLOMBIA, Norte de Santander, Pamplonita, 7° 27' 8.64" N; 72° 38' 69" W; 1610 m, 13-III-2014 [March 13^th, 2014], ex. W. Hoffmann. Parasitoid of nests of Xylocopa (Schonnherria) lateralis.

These specimens, as well as the two adult females of X. lateralis, are deposited in the Snow Entomological Collection, University of Kansas Natural History Museum, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A. The remaining adult bee female and male specimens are in the insect collection of the Universidad de Pamplona, Pamplona, Colombia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Amy Comfort and two anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions that improved this manuscript. M. L. was supported by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científcas y Técnicas, Argentina (CONICET), W. F. by the Universidad de Pamplona, Vicerrectoría de Investigaciones, and V. H. G. by National Science Foundation's REU program (DBI-1560389).

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