Estudo sobre as associações entre vespas solitárias (Vespidae, Eumeninae) e ácaros (Acari)

Abstract

Symbiosis may be described as any extended interaction between two different species. Thus, mite can be associated to other organisms as parasites, commensal, phoretic, among others, such as some winterschmidtiid that present cooperation relationships with solitary wasps (Eumeninae). These wasps have one or more cavities in their body surface that are capable of carrying mites for transportation, and they are called acarinaria. Such structures can be divided into three types: the scutellar (one pair of cavities), the propodeal (one, two or three) and the metassomal (a single cavity) Studies carried out in the northern hemisphere suggests that these relationships are species-specific. However, in South America, there are few studies in this field and, to learn more about the species of solitary wasps from Brazil that have association with mites, this work selected, through collections and museums loans, 63 wasps belonging to 30 species and four genera. All of the specimens presented at least one type of acarinarium in their bodies. There were mite in all specimens of wasps, but not all of them were associated with an acarinarium. The mites belong to eleven different genera: six Winterschmidtiidae (possibly cooperation relationships); one Oplitidae (phoresy); one Erythraeidae (parasitismo); two Acaridae (phoresy); and one Histiostomatidae (phoresy). DCA (Detrended Correspondence Analysis) and IndVal (Indicator Species Analysis) analysis were made for testing the preference of the mites for species of wasp and for area (regions of the wasp’s body). These tests were significant only for the mite genus Vespacarus preferring the Parancistrocerus wasp species and the metassomal acarinaria. Some of the mite revealed not having a specific host, and some wasps carried more than one species of mites, differently from the specific interactions reported for the northern hemisphere.