DOI: 10.5061/dryad.05qfttf1b
title: Data from: First evidence of wasp brood development inside active nests of a termite with the description of a previously unknown potter wasp species

description: Potter wasps (Vespidae: Eumeninae) are known to exhibit not only
 sophisticated preying strategies but also a remarkable ability to
 manipulate clay during nest building. Due to a mixture of plasticity in
 building behaviour and flexibility in substrate preferences during
 nest-building, the group has been reported nesting in a variety of places,
 including decaying nests abandoned by termite species. Yet, evidence of
 wasps nesting inside senescent termite mounds is poorly reported and, to
 date, accounts confirming their presence inside active colonies of
 termites are absent. Here, we address a novel intriguing association
 between two species from the Brazilian Cerrado: a previously unknown
 potter wasp (nest invader) and a termite species (nest builder). Besides
 scientifically describing Montezumia termitophila sp. nov. (Vespidae:
 Eumeninae), named after its association with the termite Constrictotermes
 cyphergaster (Silvestri, 1901) (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae), we provide
 preliminary information about the new species' bionomics by including
 (i) a hypothetical life cycle based on the evidence we collected and (ii)
 a footage showing the first interaction between a recently ecloded wasp
 and a group of termites. In doing so, we attempt to provoke relevant
 discussions in the field and, perhaps, motivate further studies with the
 group. Finally, we describe a solution to efficiently detect and sample
 termitophilous species from termite nests, an intrinsic yet challenging
 task of any studies dealing with such a cryptic biological system.Potter
 wasps (Vespidae: Eumeninae) are known to exhibit not only sophisticated
 preying strategies but also a remarkable ability to manipulate clay during
 nest building. Due to a mixture of plasticity in building behaviour and
 flexibility in substrate preferences during nest-building, the group has
 been reported nesting in a variety of places, including decaying nests
 abandoned by termite species. Yet, evidence of wasps nesting inside
 senescent termite mounds is poorly reported and, to date, accounts
 confirming their presence inside active colonies of termites are absent.
 Here, we address a novel intriguing association between two species from
 the Brazilian Cerrado: a previously unknown potter wasp (nest invader) and
 a termite species (nest builder). Besides scientifically describing
 Montezumia termitophila sp. nov. (Vespidae: Eumeninae), named after its
 association with the termite Constrictotermes cyphergaster (Silvestri,
 1901) (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae), we provide preliminary information
 about the new species' bionomics by including (i) a hypothetical life
 cycle based on the evidence we collected and (ii) a footage showing the
 first interaction between a recently ecloded wasp and a group of termites.
 In doing so, we attempt to provoke relevant discussions in the field and,
 perhaps, motivate further studies with the group. Finally, we describe a
 solution to efficiently detect and sample termitophilous species from
 termite nests, an intrinsic yet challenging task of any studies dealing
 with such a cryptic biological system.
description: We collected 13 <i>C. cyphergaster</i> nests from one
 site in the Brazilian Cerrado (Ratter et al., 1997) near the municipality
 of Divinópolis (20º08'20"S, 44º53'02"W), State of
 Minas Gerais. This area is classified as ‘equatorial savanna with dry
 winters’ (Kottek et al., 2006). The 13 termite nests, distributed sparsely
 in an area of 20 hectares and never neighboring one another, were
 collected on March 2018 (between 08:00 and 12:00) and immediately
 transported to the headquarters of property. Then, they were kept in
 individual cages for 5 days until nest inspection (<b>Fig. S2:
 5</b>). These cages, made of cubic wire frames surrounded by a thin
 tulle fabric, were designed to contain adult wasps after eclosion. As for
 verifying whether <i>M. termitophila</i>’s nesting takes place
 entirely inside <i>C. cyphergaster</i> nests, it would be
 necessary to (i) obtain empirical evidence of adult wasps ecloding from
 the inside of termite nests and (ii) document the presence of wasp’s
 offspring in termite nests, by detecting wasp brood cells integrated
 between termite galleries containing wasp immature stages. Thus, to search
 for immature stages of wasps (eggs, larvae and pupae) we thoroughly
 inspected the content of termite nests by peeling off its surface in order
 to expose subsequent layers of nest galleries (<b>Fig S2:
 5</b>). To prevent damaging the biological material we used
 scoopulas (stainless-steel spatulas of application in chemistry) and
 collected individuals using entomological tweezers. As opposed to the
 method of merely breaking <i>C. cyphergaster</i> nests into
 smaller pieces and superficially checking for termitophiles (as conducted
 in previous studies with the species), the protocol mentioned above allows
 a more refined inspection with preservation of nest structures. Only by
 preserving such structures, we were able to later document and elucidate
 the positioning and architectural features of wasp brood chambers inside
 the termite nest.
description: The file Table_S1 contains the data regarding the nests collected
 and used in the study. Information is presented as follows: 
 NestID: unique name attributed to each nest; composed by nest
 number + collector’s initials + year T, M, B, H, h, r:
 nest measures in centimeters (used to calculate the volumetry of nest
 sections) Spherical cap: calculated volume for the top
 and bottom sections of the nest in cubic centimeters
 Cilinder: calculated volume for the intermediate sections of the
 nest in cubic centimeters NestVolume: final calculated
 nest volumetry in cubic centimeters Litre: final
 calculated nest volumetry in liters NestBuilder:
 termite builder species for each nest CollectionSite:
 Location from where nests were collected
 CollectionDate: Date of collection of each nest
 CollectedBy: Collector's initials
 InactiveBroodCells: brood cells found without wasp
 immatures ActiveBroodCells: brood cells found with live
 wasp immatures LarvalStage: Larval stage of wasp
 immatures found Morphotype: Designed morphotype
 (subfamily-level) to wasp individual
 SpeciesIdentification: Species of the wasp individual, defined
 based on comparisons with types from scientific collections
 IdentifiedBy: Taxonomist responsible for final
 identification TypeSpecimen: type of the
 specimen This published work and the nomenclatural acts
 it contains have been registered in the online registration system for the
 ICZN, the ZooBank (LSID:
 zoobank.org:pub:58378E8D-B5D3-48A9-9F53-9B455717D875). The ZooBank LSIDs
 (Life Science Identifiers) can be resolved and the associated information
 viewed through any standard web browser by appending the LSID to the
 prefix “http://zoobank.org/”.