Ropalidia

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Ropalidia
Ropalidia nobilis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Vespidae
Subfamily: Polistinae
Tribe: Ropalidiini
Genus: Ropalidia
Guérin-Méneville 1831
Species

approx. 200 species

Ropalidia amabala on nest
Ropalidia distigma
Ropalidia c.f. ornaticeps
Ropalidia variegata female

Ropalidia is a large genus of

Indomalayan and Australasian biogeographical regions. The genus Ropalidia is unusual because it contains both independent and swarm-founding species.[1] Ropalidia romandi is one of the swarm founding species, meaning that new nests are founded by a large group of workers with a smaller number of inseminated females (egg-laying foundresses),[2] while Ropalidia revolutionalis is independent-founding, meaning that each nest is founded by a single foundress.[3]

Description

Ropalidia can be distinguished from other genera in the tribe by: the

pronotum having a dorsal carina but lacking a pretegular carina, the first metasomal segment being petiolate but (in dorsal view) not parallel-sided, and the mesepisternum lacking a scrobal sulcus.[4]

Species

Identification

References

  1. .
  2. ^ Hunt, James H. (2007). The Evolution of Social Wasps. Oxford University Press. pp. 57–60.
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