Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society
Volume
32
Issue
3
Publication Date
6-1-1937
First Page
116
Last Page
116
Abstract
I have recently received for identification two tropical species of social wasps, taken in the United States under similar conditions. I. Mischocyttarus basimacula (Cameron). Professor H. Jaques, of Iowa Wesleyan College, sent three specimens of this wasp, taken in a grocery store at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where they had emerged from the nest in a bunch of bananas. The species is known from Guatemala, British Honduras, the Republic of Honduras and Costa Rica.-2. Mischocyttarus ater (Olivier) (Synonym: M. imitator Ducke). A female of this species was sent by Mr. Horace N. Marvin, of the Department of Zoology of the University of Wisconsin. It was taken on a bunch of bananas in a store at Madison, Wisconsin. It had just hatched from a nest, which, according to a sketch by Mr. Marvin, consisted of a single, free comb of eight elongate paper cells, of a light brown color, attached by a short stalk. Two complete, capped over cells were 16 mm. long and 4 mm. wide. This wasp is widely distributed throughout tropical America, from Guatemala to southern Brazil.-Attention is called to these two accidental introduction, in order to avoid these and similar cases being included in lists of native insects. They also illustrate again the ease with which certain tropical wasps enter new territory, owing to the rapid modern means of transportation. No doubt some of these introductions might eventually lead to permanent naturalization, where conditions are favorable for further breeding.
Recommended Citation
Bequaert, Joseph, "Two Central American Social Wasps, Accidentally Introduced into the United States" (1937). Ba. Paper 295.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_ba/295