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Zethus wasps living in communal dwelling

In Brazil, user @helio-lourencini has the only two iNat observations of Zethus miniatus with its communal nest, a most interesting behavior. It has been identified by @rblopes with the following explanation:

"This species seems to be common in Brazil, although I never got a glimpse of the nest in the wild; only in collections and pictures. It has been reported by Ducke in the early 1900s to have communal nesting (they build the nest together, but each female tends to their own offspring, there is no cooperative brood care). Closely related species like the Central American Z. olmecus may present a similar behavior, since their nests do look alike, but nothing has been officially published, as far as I know. Understanding the evolution of this type of nesting was part of a Post-doc project of mine, but ...more ↓

Posted on April 29, 2021 06:19 PM by raycama raycama | 2 comments | Leave a comment
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-Unintentional art made by arthropods and photographed by humans-

Our artists work with a great variety of media and are mostly abstract: paper and silk, clay and found objects, and excrement; they weave, spin, daub, tunnel and mine. They arrange eggs into neat little rows and arresting patterns. They cause plants to form growths and galls of strange shapes and colors and leave the ...more ↓

raycama created this project on March 2, 2020
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