Updating the geographic records of social wasps ( Vespidae : Polistinae ) in Roraima state

Many areas of Brazil lack the most basic biodiversity studies, particularly in the case of invertebrates. In order to develop any effective conservation proposals, it is first of all necessary to acquire knowledge of the species that occur in a particular area (Melo et al. 2005). This taxonomic baseline is obtained by conducting biodiversity inventories. Vespidae is a family of wasps that includes over 5.018 valid species worldwide and despite the worldwide distribution of some species they are found in high abundance in the tropical region (Pickett & Carpenter, 2010). Polistinae social wasps comprise 26 genera and 958 species (Pickett & Carpenter, 2010); the subfamily is divided in four tribes: Ropalidiini, Polistini, Myschocyttarini and Epiponini except for Ropalidiini, the other tribes are represented in Brazil (Carpenter & Marques, 2001). Polistes Latreille, Mischocyttarus de Saussure and the 19 genera of Epiponini compound the brazilian fauna Abstract The Roraima state in Brazil is part of Northern Amazon, an area harboring high biodiversity and high degree of endemism. Nevertheless, there are few studies on diversity of social wasps occurring in this region. This study presents a list of social wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae) collected actively and using Malaise, Suspended and Light trap in six localities in Roraima state. A total of 85 species of 14 genera were collected. Fourty-five of these species are new distribution records to Roraima state, some species are not common found in the collections and lists of species, and some are recorded for the second time to Brazil or the Amazon region. This increase may be an indication that the Polistinae richness is probably higher in the regions studied and that Roraima may well contain a number of additional (as yet unrecorded) social wasp species. More comprehensive studies are needed in order to increase the knowledge of wasp species in Roraima, contributing to increased knowledge of the diversity in Northern Brazil. Sociobiology An international journal on social insects

Updating the geographic records of social wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae) in Roraima state

Introduction
Many areas of Brazil lack the most basic biodiversity studies, particularly in the case of invertebrates.In order to develop any effective conservation proposals, it is first of all necessary to acquire knowledge of the species that occur in a particular area (Melo et al. 2005).This taxonomic baseline is obtained by conducting biodiversity inventories.
of wasps totalizing about 300 species, in Brazil is among the richest in the world, with 321 species (Carpenter & Marques, 2001;Hermes et al., 2017).
Brazilian Amazon rainforest has one of the greatest biodiversity in world, being registered the higher diversity of social wasps in this biome -20 genera and more than 200 species were recorded, representing about 70% of the Brazilian fauna of social wasps (Silveira, 2002;Somavilla et al., 2014;Barbosa et al., 2016).
Furthermore, for Roraima there are only one work about social wasp in Estação Ecológica de Maracá (Raw, 1998) in addition to the previous records from Richards (1978), they reporting 40 species for this state.Moreover, it is an area close to Venezuela and Guiana, regions known for presenting endemic species for different groups of organisms, but about the diversity of social wasps in this part of Amazon is very little known, generating a gap in knowledge about the species occurring in North Amazon of Brazil.
The purpose of this work was to present an updated about the geographic records of social wasps' fauna in Roraima state.

Characteristic of the Roraima State
Roraima state, located in the center-north from the Amazon region, it has an area of ~224.300km², represents 3% inserted in the field of Amazonian ecosystem and 2.6% of the Brazilian territory (Iteraima, 2005).There is the largest continuous block of savannas in the Brazilian Amazon (Barbosa et al., 2005).
Roraima has the "lavrado" and open areas of the south of the state, with 43,281 km² and 17,500 km² respectively, occupying ~ 27% of the territory.The region North and northwest of Roraima cover a mountainous system with strong tectonic structural contact between the Parima and Pacaraima.That can reach 1.100 m (Serra do Tepequém) or near to 1.700 m (Serra da Mocidade) (Barbosa, 1997;Carvalho et al., 2016).
The climatic type of the region defined as Aw with well-defined dry period, but of greater intensity in the months of December to March (northeast of Roraima), Af with a high annual rainfall -> 2.000 mm (southern region) and Am with intermediate between the other climatic types, with not so defined dry period and medium annual rainfall -> 1.700 mm (mountainous system) (Barbosa, 1997).

Sampling method and Species preservation
Were used 6-meter intercept Malaise traps (Gressitt & Gressitt, 1962), 2-meter intercept Malaise traps (Townes model) for collect wasps in understory; intercept Suspended traps (Rafael & Gorayeb, 1982) for collect wasps in canopy tree and Light traps (a white sheet attached to a white light).Additionally, guided manual collections were also performed throughout the excursion with entomological nets and active search for wasps' colonies along trails, such as margins of "igarapés" and surroundings of houses, and they were listed just to add the data.
All material collected was fixed in combustive alcohol 96% and after pinned.The identification of the specimens followed the keys proposed by Richards (1978) and Carpenter (2004).Voucher specimens were deposited at the Entomological Laboratory of Universidade Federal de Roraima (UFRR) and Zoological Collection of Invertebrates at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil.

Results
In this work, we listed the occurrence of 85 species of social wasps for Roraima state in 14 genera; we identified 77 species in our collects and add other eight species from literature, did not collected in this study (Richards, 1978;Raw, 1998) (Tab. 01).More than 60% of the collected species belong to three genera: Polybia Lepeletier (25 species), Mischocyttarus de Saussure (14 species) and Agelaia Lepeletier (13 species).
Most of the species were captured actively with entomological net, 57 species.However, some species were captured by indirect capture methods such as intercept Malaise trap (n=41), intercept Suspended trap (n=07) and Light trap (n=08) (Table 01).
The subspecies Polistes carnifex carnifex and P. carnifex rufipennis, P. versicolor versicolor and P. versicolor kaieteurensis, Polybia gorytoides sculpturata and Polybia occidentalis occidentalis have been identified as subspecies, since they are morphologically different, and as variations have a more restricted distribution, already being registered for Venezuela, some now for the Roraima state.
Two species were incorrectly cited for the Roraima State.Richards (1978) present incorrect information about P. gorytoides sculpturata, this species is not indicated in the examined material, but it is indicated in identification key for Roraima state.Raw (1998) cited the occurrence of Ap. pallens for the Roraima State according Richards (1978), but this species was not record in the original work.The two species were confirmed in this work and considered as new occurrences.
This study corroborates the results of Silva and Silveira (2009) and Somavilla et al. (2014), who considered active search the most efficient method for collecting social wasps, mainly close to the forest ground and in the understory; in this study, we collected 59 species in active search in Roraima state.But the addition of different collection methods is an important tool for sampling of the richness of social wasps in an area, as in general the species have a varied foraging behavior.For exemple, 41 species were collected using intercept Malaise trap, demonstrating the efficiency of this method for this taxon.Additionally, seven species were collected using intercept Suspended trap and eight species were collected using Light trap, Apoica mainly.These last two techniques are not used in collections.
Amazon region has the highest diversity of Polistinae (Richards, 1978;Carpenter & Marques, 2001;Barbosa et al., 2016).In Brazilian Amazon 20 genera and more than 200 species have been recorded, which represents about 2/3 of the Brazilian fauna (Silveira, 2002), with 125 species recorded only for the state of Amazonas (Barbosa et al., 2016).Nevertheless, this impressive number surely does not yet represent the region's mega diversity, since there were only four studies carried out on this state (Barbosa et al., 2016).This statement becomes clear when we see the state of Roraima: with reports of Richards (1978) and Raw (1998) work 40 species.This study presents new occurrences of 45 social wasp species in Roraima.Our findings extend the species distributions and increase the number of species recorded in Roraima to 85 and more two subspecies for Polistes.
This increase may be an indication that the richness is probably higher in the regions studied and that Roraima may well contain a number of additional (as yet unrecorded) social wasp species.More comprehensive studies are needed in order to increase the knowledge of wasp species in Roraima, contributing to increased knowledge of the diversity in North Brazil.
recorded the occurrence of 36 species in Ilha de Maracá-Roraima state and just four species not collected in our work: Mischocyttarus alboniger Richards, 1978, Mischocyttarus carbonarius (de Saussure, 1854), Mischocyttarus prominulus Richards, 1941 and Polybia dimorpha Richards 1978 species not collected in our work.Most species are widely distributed in the Amazon, except for some species of Mischocyttarus and Polybia.The other 77 specie are recorded in ours collects.