During the summer of 1987 I spent my vacation at a small beach village, Arraial d'Ajuda, about 10 km south of Porto Seguro, in Bahia State, Brasil. At various sites at that locality, I observed the hunting behavior of a number of species of Bembicini. During my daily walk to or from the beach I often stopped to watch these wasps hunting. Many times I observed individuals of Rubrica nasuta, Stictia punctata, S. signata and Bicyrtes sp. hovering above and in front of garbage and intermittently throwing themselves towards the flies on the debris. They maintained a good distance from the garbage, 1.5 or more meters, hovering at about 1 to 1.5m above the ground and diving directly at anything that moved that was the size of a fly. When unsuccessful they frequently returned to the same "hovering aerial space". They are so fast that sometimes it seems that they would catch flies in wind. It was curious to see the way the wasps shared the aerial space around the garbage. On some days I could see 10 or more wasps flying around the same "hunting field", each one hovering in its own aerial space. As a rule, the wasps attacked any flying insect that approached their aerial space, including other wasps. I also noted that the first action for a wasp after arriving was to take up one particular aerial space and to remain there until she left for her nest or was displaced by another wasp.

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the hunting tactics of Stictia punctata. The arrows represent the approximate movements of the wasp.

Besides those behaviors, I observed a very interesting hunting tactic exhibited by some females of Stictia punctata that really amazed me. During my walks along the seashore, I had lunch on the beach in hut-like bars with wooden tables placed directly over the sand. Besides tourists, those paradisiacal places were visited by hungry Muscomorpha looking for small bits of fried shrimp or fish that eventually dropped off the table. The Bembicini in the neighborhood (various species of Rubrica, Microbembex, Bicyrtes and Stictia) were well acquainted with these tables and the surroundings were visited by flies. On one sunny afternoon, between 13:00 and 14:00 hours, I was lazily tasting some fried shrimp when I noted a loudly buzzing wasp flying in a very peculiar way around a table just in front of me. She flew facing the table and moved laterally, left and right, always hovering below the upper surface of the table. At intervals, she would quickly rise above the table surface and promptly return below it. When she detected a fly on the table, she immediately backed down and flew to a point closest to her prospective prey, doing so below the upper surface of the table and out of view of the fly. Reaching the closest point to the fly, she quickly rose above the table, dove straight at the fly, grasped it with her legs and flew away carrying her prey. After that, I started to watch these creatures with increasing interest, and I noted that this was a frequent behavior, but only by females of Stictia punctata.

Sylvan Polistes. In forests Polistes are usually found only at the edge of clearings or secondary growth. The only species whose nests I have found in the understory of lowland primary forest and which may thus be true sylvan species are: P. claripennis (Ducke) (1 nest. Colombia: Amazonas), P. bicolor Lepeletier (2 nests. Colombia: Arauca and Ecuador: Morona-Santiago) and P. deceptor Schulz (1 nest. Ecuador: Napo) – the last is essentially a species of the premontane zone. I have taken males of P. rufiventris Ducke in primary forest at the same locality as P. deceptor but the two nests that I have found of this species (Colombia: Amazonas) were both in secondary growth attached to shrubs occupied by ants.

P. melanotus Richards. The only precise locality record for this species is "Monte Redondo 1,400 m in the Colombian department of Cundinamarca" (Richards, O.W. 1978, The social wasps of the Americas). The botanist Dr. J. Idrobo informs me that this locality is "al lado de la carretera Bogota-Villavicencio, frente a Guayabetal". (At the side of the Bogota-Villavicencio road opposite Guayabetal). This site is in the foothills of the eastern slope of the Andes.

After examining type material of the two described species of Pterygorytes I can identify with certainty the stridulating sphecid of my note in Sphecos 24 as P. triangulum (F. Smith). At my request Dr. Gess has re-examined specimens of the related genus Handlirschia in his care and confirmed that this genus has no stridulatory organ.

The family Sclerogibbidae is one of the lesser known groups of Hymenoptera. Although Carpenter (1988) established its phylogenetic position, little is known about the biology of its members. Seven genera are recognized and about 10 species (Argaman 1988), whose larvae are ectoparasitic on Embioptera nymphs (Callan 1939, Shetlar 1973, Goulet & Huber 1993). Richards (1939) and Argaman (1988) have devised keys for the known genera and species.

Probethylus Ashmead is the only genus present in the New World, and it contains three species: P. callani Richards, 1939 (male and female from Trinidad and Mexico), P. mexicanus Richards, 1939 (males from Mexico and Argentina) and P. schwarzi Ashmead, 1902 (male and female from Arizona, USA). In the Neotropical region, records are very poor and scattered, and for continental South America only one male of P. mexicanus is known (Argaman 1988).

During the last 3 years we have been studying the insect fauna of the tropical dry forest and agrosystems in the Zambrano (Bolivar, Colombia) region. Many samples have been obtained from Malaise, pitfall, Berlese and other traps. Preliminary analysis of these samples has shown the presence of complex and rich faunas (e.g. ants, Molano et. al. 1995) and many new records for the country (e.g. Dryinidae, Olmi, personal communication).

A female of P. callani was collected in a Malaise trap (No. 4, Chile, Oct. 21, 1993) in a fragment of secondary forest dominated by Tabebuia and Astronium. The specimen shows some variation in size and color from Richard's description (1939) but we believe that this is not enough to consider it a different species. It is interesting that this apterous insect was collected in a trap for flying insects. It probably climbed up the net from the soil as do several genera of ants found in the traps.

This is the first record of this family for Colombia and the South America tropics, and this is the first female collected in continental South America. The absence of records for the Neotropics is probably due both to a specialized lifestyle and a scarcity of individuals. On the other hand, short-term field collections are inadequate for sampling this group. We expanded our collecting to two years of continuous sampling of over 2,000 acres in order to obtain this specimen.

Today the tropical dry forest is one of the less common but threatened forests in Colombia. Human activities have reduced vast areas to small, discontinuous patches. However, they still sustain rich faunas that add promise to proposals for their management and conservation.

We wish to thank Arnold Menke and Jim Carpenter and Biol. L. Schneider for providing us the literature references.

Argaman, Q. 1988. Generic synopsis of Sclerogibbidae (Hymenoptera). Ann. Hist. Nat. Hung.

80:177-187.

Callan, E. 1939. A note on the breeding of Probethylus callani Richards (Hymenoptera:

Bethylidae), an embiopteran parasite. Proc. Roy. Ent. Soc. Lon. Ser. B 8(11):223-224.

Carpenter, J.M. 1986. Cladistics of the Chrysidoidea. J. New York Entomol. Soc.

94(3):303-330.

Goulet, H. and J.T, Huber (eds) 1993. Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to

families. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada. Publication 1894/E. Ottawa. 668 pp.

Molano, A., F. Fernández, R. Ospinia, M. Rodriguez and G. Ulloa 1995. Hormigas del bosque

seco tropical y agrosistemas de Zambrano, Bolivar, Colombia. Memorias, I Encuentro Union Internacional para el Estudio do los Insectos Sociales, Capitulo Bolivariano, Cali, Colombia.

Richards, O.W. 1939. The Bethylidae subfamily Sclerogibbinae (Hymenoptera). Proc. Roy. Ent.

Soc. Lon. Ser. B 8(11):211-223.

Shetlar, D.J. 1973. A redescription and biology of Probethylus schwarzi Ashmead

(Hymenoptera: Sclerogibbidae) with notes on related species. Ent. News 84:205-210.

Dolichovespula norvegicoides (Sladen): SOUTH CAROLINA: Sassafras Mountain, 1 male.

To the best of my knowledge this is a new state record.

Vespula acadica (Sladen): NORTH CAROLINA: Carvers Gap vicinity near Roan Mountain,

4 queens on flowers of Vaccinium. This is only the second record from the state (see Sphecos 20:21-22 for other records from the Richland Balsam Lookout). Because the new record is only some 300 meters from the Tennessee state line, where similar vegetation at the same elevation occurs, its presence there is a virtual certainty although my searching hasn't yet been fruitful.

Vespula consobrina (Saussure): KENTUCKY: Harlan County, summit of Black Mountain;

numerous queens visiting flowers of Vaccinium (25.v.1996).

Modern studies of the New and Old World fauna's have revealed the presence of holarctic species in some genera. This has resulted in the synonymy of some North American names under European ones. To bring these to the attention of North American workers, I have listed some of these changes below. The Crossocerus information comes from Bitsch and Leclercq, 1993, Hyménoptères Sphecidae d'Europe Occidentale, vol. 1. Faune de France 79:1-325. The Pemphredon names are from Dollfuss, 1995, Linzer biol. Beitr. 27:905-1019.

Crossocerus leucostoma (Linnaeus), 1758 (Sphex); widespread in palearctic, transcontinental in

Canada and the northern U.S.

     cinctipes Provancher, 1882 (Blepharipus); synonymized by B&L 1993, including synonyms

listed by B&M 1976.

Crossocerus nigritus (Lepeletier & Brullé), 1835 (Blepharipus); widespread palearctic,

transcontinental in North America.

     nigricornis Provancher, 1888, (Blepharipus), synonymized by B&L 1993.

Crossocerus tarsatus (Shuckard), 1837 (Crabro); widespread in palearctic, transcontinental in

North America.

     planipes Fox, 1895 (Crabro), synonymized by B&L 1993 including synonyms listed by B&M

1976.

Pemphredon lugubris (Fabricius), 1793 (Crabro); palearctic and transcontinental in North

America.

     concolor Say, 1824, synonymy by Dollfuss, 1995 including synonyms listed by B&M 1976.

Pemphredon rugifer (Dahlbom), 1844 (Cemonus); palearctic and eastern U.S.

     bipartior Fox, 1892, synonymy by Dollfuss, 1995 including synonym listed by B&M 1976.

Records of the single South American species of Sphecius are few. S. spectabilis was described from "Brasilia" by Taschenberg (1875), although Handlirsch (1889:464) inexplicably said the type locality was Santiago del Estero in Argentina. Handlirsch also had material from Paraguay. A single male of this wasp from Bolivia is in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. The locality on the label is undecipherable. Brèthes (1910: 281) described the variety nobilis from Chacras de Coria, Mendoza Prov., Argentina; the status of this taxon is unclear at present.

During his recent visit in Washington, Fernando Fernández brought a female of this wasp collected in Colombia at Gaviotas in Dpto.Vichada. This is in the Orinoco Basin of eastern Colombia. This record extends the distribution of spectabilis considerably northward and suggests that the species is probably widespread in South America, at least at lower elevations along the eastern side of the Andes, although uncommonly collected.

Sphecius spectabilis is largely black but terga I-II of the gaster have large yellow maculations laterally. The clypeus and pronotal lobe are also yellow maculated. Taschenberg's material also had yellow on the scutellum and metanotum. Brèthes' variety nobilis was based on material with reduced yellow: the scutellum was black (as in the Bolivian and Colombian specimens I have seen). It is likely that the degree of yellow maculation varies.

Brèthes, J., 1910. Himenópteros Argentinos. Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires 20:205-316.

Handlirsch, A., 1889. Monographie der mit Nysson und Bembex verwandten Grabwespen IV.

Sitzungsber. kais. Adad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturw. Classe 98:440-517.

Taschenberg, E., 1875. Nyssonidae und Crabronidae des zoologischen Museums der hiesigen

Universität. Zeitschr. Ges. Naturwiss. Halle 45: 359-409.