Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Mararu - termite nest continued

And here's a closeup of the entrance hole to the wasps nest show on the previous post. Again, I'm assuming these are wasps. I suppose that they could be termites, given their color. I'll leave that decision up to the experts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Based upon the shape of the head, most visible top & center, I would agree with you that these are wasps.

Thank you for the continued postings. I am an Albertan grad student studying Cerrado vegetation distributions and I'm finding your anecdotes, plant and wildlife pictures quite enjoyable
~: )

Steven Winn Alexander said...

Thanks for verifying that. I can normally recognize wasps but these are so different. They are just as black as the material they're using to make the entrance.

cebaehren said...

wasp?
oh, men!
how long are you in contact with the nature and brazilians in Brazil?? one week?
Normally the indigenous people know the difference between a wasp and a stingless bee..It's a species who likes to live in abandoned or older termite nests...
It is not Melipona, because of the use of wax at the entering hole... but i think is a Partamona species..
search for
termiteiro abeilha
in http://ordenhymenoptera.blogspot.com