Brachymenes
Encyclopedia
Brachymenes is a small neotropical genus of potter wasp
s 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 on 3 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 of its 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 of parallel combined compartments composed of fine clay material which is later covered 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 a vertical row in only one layer, meanwhile B. dyscherus nests can be much more extensive 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. Its appearance in Colombia is uncertain.
Potter wasp
Potter wasps are a cosmopolitan wasp group presently treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but sometimes recognized in the past as a separate family, Eumenidae.-Recognition:...
s 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 on 3 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 of its 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 of parallel combined compartments composed of fine clay material which is later covered 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 a vertical row in only one layer, meanwhile B. dyscherus nests can be much more extensive 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. Its appearance in Colombia is uncertain.