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Short Communication
New records and a comprehensive checklist of mammoth wasps (Hymenoptera, Scoliidae) in Panama
expand article infoYostin Añino‡§, Roberto A. Cambra‡, Darlenys Díaz‡, Juliet Gómez‡, Carlos Ramos§‡, Paul E. Hanson|, Luis Damián Ramírez-Guillén
‡ Universidad de Panamá, Panamá, Panama
§ Estación Científica Coiba AIP, Panamá, Panama
| Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Costa Rica
¶ El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, San Cristóbal, Mexico

Corresponding author: Luis Damián Ramírez-Guillén ( luis.ramirez@estudianteposgrado.ecosur.mx )

Academic editor: Samuel Novais
© 2024 Yostin Añino, Roberto A. Cambra, Darlenys Díaz, Juliet Gómez, Carlos Ramos, Paul E. Hanson, Luis Damián Ramírez-Guillén.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Añino Y, Cambra RA, Díaz D, Gómez J, Ramos C, Hanson PE, Ramírez-Guillén LD (2024) New records and a comprehensive checklist of mammoth wasps (Hymenoptera, Scoliidae) in Panama. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 19(3): 361-366. https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.19.e127528
ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D9E2FA30-D469-4554-9643-12051E4B3851
Open Access

Abstract

A list of Scoliidae species recorded in Panama is presented. Considering the recent taxonomic updates made on this tribe of wasps, as well as the lack of a formal study on its geographical distribution, richness, and species diversity in Panama, this study aimed to document the existing species in the country. Based on literature records and an examination of 383 specimens, we found a total of 13 species and 7 genera. The following two species and one subspecies are recorded for the first time in Panama: Dielis tolteca (Saussure, 1857), Pygodasis hyalina (Saussure, 1864), and Pygodasis ephippium wagneriana (Saussure, 1864).

Key words

Biodiversity, Campsomerini, neotropics, Scoliini

Introduction

The Scoliidae Latreille, 1802, known as mammoth wasps or digger wasps, are natural biological control agents (Abbate et al. 2018). Females dig in the soil in search of beetle larvae (usually Scarabaeidae), and upon encountering a suitable host, they use their sting to inject a paralyzing venom and then deposit an egg on the host; the larva feeds externally, eventually killing the host (Clausen 1978). Many of the Coleoptera larvae parasitized by the larvae of these wasps are crop pests (Fernández 2006), and thus scoliids are considered beneficial.

Scoliids have a cosmopolitan distribution, and according to Osten (2005), there are approximately 560 described species. The family has a complex nomenclature and has been subject to many changes by Argaman (1996) and Osten (2005), almost without discussion or clear justification. Argaman’s classification mentions four subfamilies: Campsomerinae, Colpinae, Proscoliinae, and Scoliinae; Osten’s classification proposes three subfamilies: Archaeoscoliinae (fossil), Proscoliinae, and Scoliinae, divided into Scoliini and Campsomerini. The rather chaotic state of the scoliid taxonomy has been discussed by Elliott (2011). Therefore, there is no single source that can be taken as a guide for classification at the generic level (Taylor and Barthélémy 2021).

In the Americas, Scoliidae is a relatively poorly studied group. In addition to a few general publications (Bradley 1957, 1964), some taxonomic and distributional information exists for Brazil (Fox 1896), Venezuela (Bradley 1945), Costa Rica (Finnamore and Hanson 1995), Colombia (Fernández and Cubillos 1999), Florida (Grissell 2007), Chile (Pizarro-Araya et al. 2021), Mexico (Ramírez-Guillén et al. 2022), and Panama (Collantes and Pitti 2024). It is worth noting that although this family is cosmopolitan, most species are tropical (Brothers and Finnamore 1993).

In Panama, scoliids are grouped into two tribes of the subfamily Scoliinae: Campsomerini and Scoliini. After Cameron (1893), Scoliidae has been discussed by Añino et al. (2020), who recorded Scolia rufiventris for Central America and presented aspects related to the flight seasonality of Scolia guttata, both species belonging to the tribe Scoliini. The tribe Campsomerini has often been considered to be represented in the Neotropics by just a single genus, Campsomeris (e.g., Hanson 2006). In this work, we follow the classification proposed by Osten (2005), whereby the subgenera of Campsomeris were considered valid genera, eleven in total. Considering the lack of knowledge about the diversity and distribution of Campsomerini species found in Panama, their ecological importance, and recent taxonomic updates, this study aims to present a list of species that will help improve information on diversity and distribution and report for the first time two species and one subspecies for Panama.

Methods

The literature review was performed from the library in the Museo de Invertebrados G. B. Fairchild, Universidad de Panamá (MIUP), using the Web of Science and Scopus databases and search terms related to Scoliidae, giving priority to any information on the presence of these wasps in Panama. In addition, a total of 383 specimens deposited in the reference collection of the MIUP were examined. The specimens were collected between the years 1977 and 2023 with Malaise traps or manually with entomological nets, and each of them was mounted on entomological pins. This review included the creation of a database with Microsoft Excel, which contains the following information: name of species, author and year of description, sex of each specimen, location, geographical coordinates in UTM, collection dates, and collector. We follow the Darwin Core format with each of the specimens processed. The specimens were identified by L. Ramírez-Guillén in 2023, using the taxonomic keys of Bradley (1945, 1957), Ramírez-Guillén et al. (2022), and the previous study of some type material. The Osten (2005) classification of genera was followed because Osten’s catalogue, though confusing, still provides a clearer division of genera, especially when considering Argaman’s chaotic classification.

Results

We examined 198 specimens of Scolini and 185 of Campsomeri, for a total of 383 specimens. Currently, 7 genera and 13 species are recorded from Panama. In the tribe Scoliini, two species of Scolia are present (Añino et al. 2020), while Campsomerini is represented by the remaining 6 genera and 11 species, including the first records of Dielis tolteca (Saussure, 1857), Pygodasis hyalina (Saussure, 1864), and Pygodasis ephippium wagneriana (Saussure, 1864).

Checklist of Scoliidae from Panama

Family: Scoliidae

Subfamily: Scoliinae

Tribe: Campsomerini

Aelocampsomeris brethesi (Bradley, 1927)

Aelocampsomeris variegata Fabricius, 1793

Dielis dorsata (Fabricius, 1787)

Dielis tolteca (Saussure, 1857)

Distribution. El Salvador, United States, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua (Ramírez-Guillén et al. 2022), Panama (first record presented in this study).

Material examined. Fig. 1; Suppl. material 1.

Figure 1. 

Distribution map of two species and one subspecies of Scoliidae reported for the first time from Panama.

Lissocampsomeris columba (Saussure, 1858)

Lissocampsomeris wesmaeli (Lepeletier, 1845)

Pygodasis ephippium ephippium (Say, 1837)

Pygodasis ephippium wagneriana (Saussure, 1864)

Distribution. Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica (Bradley 1945), and Panama (first record presented in this study).

Material examined. Fig. 1; Suppl. material 1.

Pygodasis hyalina (Saussure, 1864)

Distribution. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, México, Guyana (Bradley 1945), and Panama (first record presented in this study).

Material examined. Fig. 1; Suppl. material 1.

Pygodasis vittata banksi (Bradley, 1945)

Stygocampsomeris servillei (Guérin-Meneville, 1838)

Xanthocampsomeris hesterae (Rohwer, 1927)

Tribe: Scoliini

Scolia guttata guttata Burmeister, 1853

Scolia rufiventris Fabricius, 1804

Discussion

A single putative specimen of Campsomeris atrata (Fabricius, 1775) was recorded from Panamá (David, Chiriquí) by Cameron (1893: 227, male). The author stated that the specimen corresponded to Saussure and Sichel’s (1864: 214) description of the Patagonian variety. In Cameron’s (1893) description, the specimen shows forewings with a hyaline red colour and a violet apex; metasoma with an almost continuous yellow spot on the first segment and a large irregular yellow spot on each side of terga 2–4, with the spot of T2 being the largest. Cameron’s description does not agree with the completely black metasoma of C. atrata, which is known from the Caribbean (Hispanolia, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico). Therefore, C. atrata is probably not found in Panama and has not been included in the checklist presented in this work.

Finally, two species that could be present in Panama, due to their distribution in South America and Mesoamerica, are Pygodasis ianthina (Bradley, 1945) and Rhabdotomeris rokitanskyi (Dalla Torre, 1897).

Additional information

Conflict of interest

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Ethical statement

No ethical statement was reported.

Funding

We acknowledge support from the VIP-University of Panama.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: YA, RAC, PEH. Data curation: YA, RC, LR, DD, JG. Formal analysis: YA, RAC, CR, LR. Funding acquisition: YA. Investigation: All authors. Writing—original draft: YA, RC, LR. Writing—review and editing: all authors.

Author ORCIDs

Yostin Añino https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8870-8155

Roberto A. Cambra https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3799-4710

Carlos Ramos https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2344-9241

Paul E. Hanson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7667-7718

Luis Damián Ramírez-Guillén https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2853-2714

Data availability

All of the data that support the findings of this study are available in the main text or Supplementary Information.

References

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  • Añino YJ, Cambra RA, Windsor DM, Zúñiga R, Quintero D (2020) Review of Scolia (Hymenoptera, Scoliidae) from Central America, including seasonal flight activity in Scolia guttata. Acta Biologica Colombiana 25(2): 202–209. https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v25n2.77590
  • Argaman Q (1996) Generic synopsis of Scoliidae (Hymenoptera, Scolioidea). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 88: 171–222.
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Supplementary material

Supplementary material 1 

Scoliidae records from Panama

Yostin Añino

Data type: xlsx

This dataset is made available under the Open Database License (http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/). The Open Database License (ODbL) is a license agreement intended to allow users to freely share, modify, and use this Dataset while maintaining this same freedom for others, provided that the original source and author(s) are credited.
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