The Pollen Wasps : : Ecology and Natural History of the Masarinae / / Sarah K. Gess.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP e-dition: Complete eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Gess, Sarah K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2013]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: Reprint 2014
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (340 p.) :; 28 halftones, 43 linecuts, 25 color illustrations

The 25 color plates and 60 black-and-white illustrations offer readers a rare close look at this little-known and endangered group of insects. Three appendixes list all known flower-visiting records, all hymenopteran visitors to the flowers included in the pollination chapter, and all published species names for Masarinae. Pollen wasps are of interest to a wide range of scholars (including entomologists, ethologists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists) because of their close associations with flowering plants and because of the ability of certain species to produce silk for nest building--an intriguing case of convergent evolution. For these readers, and for students of natural history and proponents of species preservation, The Pollen Wasps will prove an invaluable resource.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- CHAPTER 1. Introduction -- CHAPTER 2. Biogeography -- CHAPTER 3. Flower Associations -- CHAPTER 4. Life History -- CHAPTER 5. Nesting -- CHAPTER 6. Associates -- CHAPTER 7. Pollen Wasps as Potential Pollinators -- CHAPTER 8. Pollen Wasps and Land Use -- CHAPTER 9. Summary -- APPENDIX 1. Records of flower visiting by masarine wasps -- APPENDIX 2. Plants of the groups associated with masarine wasps in southern Africa together with their non-masarine solitary aculeate wasp and bee visitors -- APPENDIX 3. Described species of masarine wasps -- References -- Index