Species richness and seasonality were investigated for solitary wasps using trap-nests at the "Fazenda Experimental da Fundação Educacional de Ituiutaba", Minas Gerais. Trap-nests consisted of segments of bamboo canes and tubes made with black cardboard, 58 or 85 mm in length, with internal diameters of 6 or 8 mm, denominated small nest (=SN) and big nest (=BN), respectively. The trap-nests were inspected every month and a total of 296 nests of wasps were obtained, including 236 Sphecidae nests (8 species) and 60 Eumeninae nests (4 species). Nest establishment was more frequent during the hot and wet season (September to April), especially February for Sphecidae and January for Eumeninae. Trypoxylon lactitarse Saussure founded nests during the entire period but Pachodynerus praecox Saussure only nested during the cool dry season (May to August). The trap-nests tube greater utilized was BN (57,6% of the nests) by the Sphecidae and SN (78,6% of the nests) by the Eumeninae. The most abundant species of Sphecidae was T. lactitarse (61% of the sphecid nests), and of Eumeninae was Pachodynerus brevithorax Saussure (80% of the eumenine nests). Observations on nest structure, cocoon structure, mortality and natural enemies are also presented.
Insecta; Eumeninae; wasps; trap-nests; nest structure
