Brachymenes

Taxobox
name = "Brachymenes"


image_width = 250px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
familia = Vespidae
subfamilia = Eumeninae
genus = "Brachymenes"
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"Brachymenes dyscherus" (de Saussure, 1852)
*"Brachymenes wagnerianus" (de Saussure, 1875)

"Brachymenes" is a small neotropical genus of potter wasps currently containing 2 species: The primarily andean species "Brachymenes wagnerianus" and the lowland species "Brachymenes dyscherus".

The first wasp of this species was collected by the german natural scientist and voyager Moritz Wagner (born at Bayreuth Bavaria the 3rd of October 1813) during his expedition from Panama over Colombia to Ecuador between 1858 and 1859. The holotype specimen later was described by the nature scientist Henri de Saussure from Geneve (Switzerland) who named the new found wasp "Eumenes wagnerianus" in honour to it´s finder. In 1961 the italian biologist Antonio Giordano Soika during his revision of the Eumenidae-family founded at the 11th Congress of the Entomological Society in Vienna (Austria) the new genus "Brachymenes" and described the also defined by him new species "Brachymenes dyscherus". "

Both species are potter wasps. Their nests consist in parallely combined compartments composed of fine clay material which is lateron coverd by a "roof" made of a more grainy structured material, to cover the exact site of the breeding compartments. "B. wagnerianus" constructs after a strict concept always 6 compartments in an vertical row in only one layer, meanwhile "B. dyscherus" nests can be much more extense and combine several layers of breeding chambers.

The species distribution is Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela for "B. wagnerianus". "B. dyscherus" is described from Guayana, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and also from Ecuador and Peru. It´s appearance in Colombia is uncertain.

References

* Giordani Soika, A. 1990. Revisione degli Eumenidi neotropicali appartenenti ai generi "Pachymenes" Sauss., "Santamenes" n. gen., "Brachymenes" G. S., "Pseudacaromenes" G. S., "Stenosigma" G. S. e "Gamma" Zav. (Hymenoptera). Boll. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Venezia 39: 71-172.

* Sarmiento Monroy, C. 1997. Vespidos de Colombia. Dissertation. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Biología, Bogotá.

* Camillo, E. (1999). A solitary mud-daubing wasp, "Brachymenes dyscherus" (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) from Brazil with evidence of a life-cycle polyphenism. Rev. Biol. Trop. 47(4): 949-958. 1999

* Zanger, P. (2004). Die tonbauenden Insekten Kolumbiens und die Architektur ihrer Bauwerke. Teil 1. Lehrbuch-Nest der Eumenide "Brachymenes wagnerianus" (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea: Eumenidae) aus der zentralkolumbianischen Andenkordillere. 10 pages. CID-Verlag, Weilmünster. http://www.cidinvestigacion.blogspot.com

* Pictures in http://www.flickr.com Search: Eumenes (Brachymenes) wagnerianus