Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-04-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:00:15Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rocha_aa_me_rcla.pdf: 859526 bytes, checksum: 82230b3ac1feb99a7c90243d658ecf5b (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / Neste trabalho foi estudada a atividade diária de busca por recursos de Protopolybia exigua em duas áreas no município de Bom Jesus da Lapa (13º15 S; 43º25 W), Bahia, Brasil, localizado na região do Médio São Francisco, com o objetivo de responder as seguintes questões: Qual a amplitude de horário da atividade forrageadora? Qual a relação entre os fatores físicos do tempo (temperatura, umidade relativa do ar, luminosidade e velocidade do vento) e a freqüência de saídas do ninho? Qual a influência das fases de desenvolvimento da colônia no número de saídas? Quais recursos as campeiras conduzem ao ninho? Qual a relação entre os fatores físicos do tempo e a coleta dos diferentes recursos? A coleta dos recursos é diferenciada de acordo com as fases do ciclo colonial e com o número de indivíduos (adultos e imaturos) presentes na colônia? Esta espécie, na região estudada, conduz presa macerada no papo? Durante o período de janeiro a junho de 2006 foram realizadas observações em 12 colônias de P. exigua, em diferentes fases do ciclo colonial. Os resultados revelaram que a espécie possui uma amplitude de quase 13 horas de atividade forrageadora e o Índice de Retorno com Recursos para a espécie foi de 93,5%. A atividade tornou-se mais intensa das 13:01 às 16:00h, quando foram registradas as maiores temperaturas (ºC) e menores valores de umidade relativa do ar (%). As colônias que possuíam maior número de larvas apresentaram um maior número médio de viagens ao campo por hora e o aumento do número de fêmeas na colônia tende a induzir a atividade forrageadora. Há diferença no número de saídas das campeiras do ninho, considerando as três fases de desenvolvimento colonial. A atividade de coleta de diferentes recursos (néctar, polpa de madeira, água, presa e resina) por P. exigua está relacionada...( Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / In this study the daily activity of search for resources by Protopolybia exigua was studied in two areas of the city of Bom Jesus da Lapa (13º15'S; 43º25'W), Bahia, Brazil, located in the region of Médio São Francisco River, aiming to answer the following questions: what is the amplitude of the foraging activity time? What is the relation between the physical factors of weather (temperature, relative air humidity, luminosity and wind speed) and the frequency of nest leaving? What is the influence of the stages of colony development on the number of exits by the bees? What resources do workers take to the nest? What is the relation between the physical factors of weather and the gathering of different resources? Is the resource collecting distinct according to the phases of the colony cycle and the number of individuals (adults and immatures) present in the colony? Does this species, in the region studied, carry its prey macerated in the crop? During the period from January to June 2006 twelve colonies of P. exigua in different phases of the colony cycle were observed. The results revealed this species presented an activity amplitude of almost 13 hours of foraging activity and the Rate of Returns with Resources for the species was 93.5%. The activity became more intense from 1:01 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., when the highest temperatures (ºC) and the least values of relative air humidity (%) were observed. The colonies that had a larger number of larvae presented a larger average number of trips to the camp per hour, and the increase in the number of females in the colony tended to induce to foraging activity. There was difference in the number of exits by the nest workers, considering the three phases of colony development. The activity of collecting different resources (nectar, wood pulp, water, prey and resin) by P. exigua is related both to physical factors of weather and to colony intrinsic ... (Complete abstract click eletronic access below)

A striking feature of hymenopterans societies is the absence of male workers. Foraging, nest building, brood care and all other activities required for the functioning of the colony are carried out by the females. These behaviours of the females and the implied cooperation and altruism have led social insect researchers to focus almost exclusively on the female members of hymenopterans societies. As a consequence, males have remained relatively neglected. The imbalance in the attention paid by researchers to females and males has been even more striking in the case of the extensively studied primitively eusocial wasp Rosalinda marginata. I have therefore focussed most of my attention to male R. marginata but of course, wherever possible and appropriate, I have compared the males with the females. Since almost nothing was known about R. marginata males, I began by obtaining basic information on the natural history and behaviour of the males. Male R. marginata are smaller in size and are different in the shape of the head as compared to the females. By conducting a three year survey, I found that just as nests of this species are found throughout the year, so are the males. The presence of males throughout the year has implications for the evolution of sociality by making available the opportunity to mate and found new nests, for females eclosing at any time of the year. Unlike the females who spend all their life on their nests, males stay on their natal nests only for one to twelve days (mean ± sd: 6.0 ± 2.6, N = 55) and leave their natal nest once and for all, to lead a nomadic life. It is difficult to determine how long males live after leaving their natal nests. However, I maintained males in the laboratory with ad libitum food and found that under these conditions they can live up to 140 days (mean physiological life span ± SD: 61.3 ± 28.0, N = 106). Like all eusocial hymenopterans males, R. marginata males also do not take part in any colony maintenance activities. They however, occasionally perform the following behaviours: solicit food, antennae nest, antennae another wasp, feed self, snatch food (from females), fan wings, body jerk and wing jerk, dominance and subordinate behaviours. Females of course perform all of these behaviours and many more. But there are no behaviours which are restricted to the males. Borrowing methods used by ecologists to measure species richness and diversity, I have computed the behavioral richness and diversity of male and female R. marginata. As expected, female behaviour is richer and more diverse compared to males. Comparing what the males did during their short stay on the nest and what females did during their long stay on the nest, I found that males did not forage or feed larvae (although I recorded one male feeding larvae thrice on one occasion when there seemed to be excess food on the nest). Males showed, dominance and subordinate behaviours and being solicited behaviour, significantly less often than females. On the other hand, males showed higher frequencies of feeding self and soliciting behaviour. However, these comparisons may not be fair because what males do in the first few days of their life is being compared with what females do throughout their life. Hence I truncated the female data at six days to make it comparable to the average age of the males on the nest. Even after doing so I found similar differences except that the males show similar rates of feed self and higher rates of subordinate behaviour compared to the young females. As mentioned in the beginning, absence of male workers is a striking feature of social Hymenoptera. I therefore naturally turned my attention to the possible reasons for this. As there has been much speculation on the ultimate, evolutionary explanations for why males do not work, I decided to investigate possible proximate explanations. To make my goal experimentally tractable, I decided to focus on the behaviour of feeding larvae as an example of work. In spite of the fact that R. marginata has been studied for over two decades, male R. marginata had never been seen to feed larvae, before my study. I advanced three hypotheses for why males do not feed larvae. (1) Males are incapable of feeding larvae. (2) Males do not feed larvae because they have insufficient access to food to satisfy themselves and to feed the larvae. (3) Males do not feed larvae because females perform the same task very efficiently. In a series of experiments designed to test these hypotheses, I showed that males are indeed capable of feeding larvae; they do so at small frequencies when given access to additional food and do so at impressive frequencies when deprived of females, provided with excess food and confronted with hungry larvae. Nevertheless, their ‘feed larva’ behaviour is less sophisticated and relatively inefficient compared to females. Thus I have shown male wasps can work, given an opportunity. In addition to being very satisfying, this result negates the preadaptation hypothesis which argues that male social Hymenoptera do not work because their solitary ancestors did not. In spite of what I have shown above, mating remains the main roleof the males. Therefore, I next turned my attention to a study of mating behaviour. It is well known that mating never takes place on the nest of R. marginata. Although some sporadic attempts had been made before, mating behaviour had never been observed in laboratory conditions before my study. In a series of trial-and-error pilot experiments, varying the age, cage size, number of wasps per cage, period of isolation from other wasps, lighting conditions etc., and with considerable help from enthusiastic volunteers among my lab-mates, I succeeded in observing mating behaviour in the laboratory. In the final, standardized experimental set up, we introduced a single male and a single female wasp, both isolated from their nests and other wasps for at least five days, into an aerated transparent plastic box and made observations for one hour. Using such an experimental set up, we first made a detailed qualitative description of mating behaviour. All behavioral interactions were initiated by the males. Males often attempted to mount the females but sometimes the females flew away, making the attempt to mount unsuccessful. On other occasions males successfully mounted the females, which involved climbing on the female and drumming and rubbing his antennae and abdomen on the corresponding parts of the female body. On some occasions mounting led to interlocking of the abdominal tips, a process we refer to as ‘conjugation’. Sometimes the conjugation lasted less than five seconds and during which the male remained on the back of the female; this was referred to as short conjugation (SC). But at other times the conjugation lasted for more than 20 seconds, and the male flipped on its back; this was Referred to as long conjugation (LC). I dissected all females, involved ineither LC or SC or both. Of the 47 pairs, 21 pairs mated successfully as judged by the transfer of sperm into the spermatheca. With the goal of developing a strategy to obtain live mated females for any future experiments, we attempted to determine the behavioral correlate/s of successful sperm transfer. It turns out that SC is inadequate for sperm transfer and LC is a good predictor of sperm transfer. Five to twenty days of age is optimal for mating for both males and females. There was a significant reduction in the probability of mating when one or both partners were younger or older than 5-20 days. We did not find any evidence for nestmate discrimination in the context of mating. This is not surprising because mating takes place away from the nest and active nestmate discrimination may therefore be unnecessary to avoid inbreeding. Under these experimental conditions neither body size of males and females nor ovarian conditions of the females appeared to influence mating success. I hope that my studies will enhance attention of future researchers to the males and will also facilitate experiments requiring mated wasps and permit the study of mate choice and other reproductive behaviours in this otherwise well- studied species.

Altruism is defined as a trait in an individual that increases some other individual’s fitness at the expense of her own. Therefore, existence of such traits in a population is an evolutionary paradox, as natural selection should eliminate such a trait. Extreme altruism in the form of eusociality where individuals relinquish their own reproduction to help raise other’s offspring has been an enigma in evolutionary biology since Darwin. Primitively eusocial organisms provide one with a unique system to study the evolution and maintenance of altruism as in these kind of species most of the individuals are capable of developing their reproductive organs, although at a certain point in time, only one or a few individuals actually reproduce. Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial wasp belonging to the insect order Hymenoptera, Family Vespidae. R. marginata colonies are monogynous, although serial polygyny is observed in a colony’s lifetime. Colony initiation happens either by single founding or multiple founding. Newly founded colonies may accept individuals from other colonies, but mature colonies seldom do. Production of males is irregular, and once eclosed, they generally leave their natal nest within a week. The haplodiploidy of Hymenopteran species, i.e. the males being haploid and the females diploid, make them uniquely genetically predisposed for eusociality to evolve as was shown by William Donald Hamilton in his kin selection theory. Primitvely eusocial Hymenopteran species, being susceptible to experimental manipulation, allows one to test the predictions of this theory. In this thesis I have addressed three aspects of the biology of R. marginata using microsatellite markers, which are the following: 1) Distribution of nestmate genetic relatedness in early founding (pre‐emergence) and mature ( post‐emergence colonies) and their comparison (Chapter 3) 2) Role of relatedness and fertility in predicting the queen’s successor (Chapter 4) 3) Genetic structure of populations (Chapter 5) CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: This chapter gives a brief outline of the field of molecular ecology putting its techniques to the context of insect sociobiology. CHAPTER 2. METHODS: This chapter gives a general outline of the molecular genetic methods involved. In addition, the issue of the mutation process in R. marginata microsatellites has also been addressed. There are two main models of mutation for microsatellite evolution i.e. infinite alleles model (IAM) and the step‐wise mutation model (SMM). To understand the actual process of mutation in R. marginata, sets of alleles with continuous sizes were sequenced and aligned. This was repeated for several of the loci. Seven out of the nine loci genotyped revealed clear step‐like mutation pattern and was binned accordingly. Two loci were dropped as the actual nature of step‐sizes in these two loci was unclear. Therefore, the final dataset consisted of genotype for 7 loci. This chapter also discusses the initial steps in data formatting and analysis. CHAPTER 3. GENETIC RELATEDNESS IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF COLONY DEVELOPMENT: In this chapter I have estimated nestmate genetic relatedness using seven polymorphic microsatellite loci in two different stages of colony development of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidiamarginata and compared them. In both kinds of nests the average colony relatedness was observed to be less than 0.75, i.e., what is expected for full sib females in Hymenoptera. Moreover, it was observed that the nestmates at the initial colony founding stage are on average less related to each other than in mature colonies. From this, one may postulate that the indirect component of inclusive fitness plays a relatively minor role than its direct component as individuals chose to leave a higher relatedness background in favour of a lower relatedness background. As newly founded colonies are relatively smaller in size than mature colonies, the probability of an individual wasp becoming the queen in this kind of colony is higher than in mature colonies. CHAPTER 4. TESTING THE ROLE OF RELATEDNESS AND FERTILITY IN PREDICTING THE QUEEN’S SUCCESSORS: R. marginata colonies are headed by docile queens. When this queen dies or is removed, one of the workers becomes extremely aggressive. She is known as the potential queen because within a few days she becomes the new queen of the colony and her aggression comes down. Predicting the successor in the presence of the queen has eluded most of the approaches attempted so far. The probability of an individual becoming the queen has been found to be uncorrelated with her body size, aggression, ovarian status or mating status. The only trend that has been observed till date, is a positive correlation with age, but the pattern is not perfect. However, the workers themselves seem to be perfectly aware of who their immediate successor going to be. In this chapter, I have tested several models of queen succession constructed in an inclusive fitness framework. These models have been tested both using relatedness alone as well as using fertility along with relatedness. Predictions of none of the models actually matched the observed sequence of successors. The wasps do not seem to be choosing their successor to maximize their inclusive fitness. CHAPTER 5. GENETIC STRUCTURE OF NATURAL POPULATIONS: I have also looked at the genetic structure of R. marginata populations in a large part of its natural distribution. I have used both F and R statistics to estimate the level of structuring and compared them. Both Fat as well Rst were found to be significantly larger than 0. Also Fis and Ris both were small and not significant suggesting lack of inbreeding. Rst was observed to be higher than Fst. Permutation test revealed a higher contribution of mutation in this structuring than migration, suggesting Rst to be a better measure of genetic structuring in this case. Similar pattern was observed with Anlysis of MOlecular VAriance. Pairwise Fst/(1‐Fst) values were found to be uncorrelated with distance, whereas barely significant trend was observed with Rst/(1‐Rst). The scatter across the trend line in both the cases suggested lack of migration drift equilibrium, with drift being more relative to migration. Higher level of structuring was observed at the level of the colony. However, colonies were rather outbred as was suggested by high and negative values of Fia and Ria values. This is not at all surprising as nestmates are related to each other. The pattern of isolation by distance at the colony level was similar to that observed in case of the populations. However, there was even higher degree of scattering of the individual points in this case. CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS: Hamilton’s inclusive fitness theory has received a wide attention from and acceptance by sociobiologists, and relatedness have been measured in a wide variety of social insects. In this thesis relatedness in the context of colony founding was measured and compared with mature colonies. Also, several models constructed in an inclusive theory framework were experimentally tested. In both, support for indirect fitness was found wanting. The population genetic structure of R. marginata revealed that the sub populations are small in size and migration among them low. It also suggested significant contribution of colony level structuring on the population genetic structuring. Using more modern molecular genetic and statistical techniques, these and similar other questions can be addressed with higher precision and rigour, and such studies are expected to greatly advance our understanding of the basic premise of this thesis, i.e., how can eusociality evolve and be maintained? We hope that the current work will encourage others to ask such questions in other species.

Many Hymenoptera, with their painful stings and noxious chemical defenses, exhibit bright aposematic warning color patterns and are the most frequently mimicked group of organisms. Such aposematic color patterns are found in parasitic wasps of the Neotropical Compsobracon group (Braconidae). Many members of this group exhibit color patterns similar to several thousand other species of Braconidae, Ichneumonidae, sawflies, assassin bugs, flies, moths, and beetles. One hypothesis to explain this observation is that the members of the complex and their colors are generated by multiple cospeciation events resulting in the constituent genera having isomorphic phylogenetic trees. An alternative hypothesis is that the organisms have colonized existing color pattern niches independently and do not have topologically similar phylogenetic histories. In order to test the hypothesis that these patterns are the result of cospeciation events they will be described and mapped onto a phylogenetic tree. If clades are found to have isomorphic topologies; evidence will suggest cospeciation. However, if clades are not found to have similar topologies, evidence will suggest independent colonization of color pattern niches. / Graduation date: 2006

Many animals live in societies of varying degrees of organization. Some individuals in these societies seem to sacrifice their own fitness to increase the fitness of some others. Understanding the forces that mould the evolution of such altruistic behaviour has become a dominant theme in modern evolutionary biology. Primitively eusocial polistine wasps provide excellent model systems to study the evolution of altruism as they show high degrees of plasticity in their behaviour. Different individuals in the same population pursue different social strategies such as nesting alpne or nesting in groups. When wasps nest in groups, usually only one individual becomes the egg layer, while die rest assume the role of sterile workers. Why do the workers not become solitary foundresses and rear their own offspring instead of working to rear the brood of another individual? Here I have used the tropical primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata to explore some factors that might potentially favour the worker strategy over the solitary founding strategy. Workers in multiple foundress nests may benefit by rearing brood more closely related to them than their own offspring would be. However, from previous work on this species it is known that relatedness between sisters is rather low and that workers therefore rear quite distantly related brood. Therefore, I have concentrated on factors other than genetic relatedness that might potentially favour the worker strategy. A total of 145 naturally initiated nests with different numbers of foundresses was monitored over a period of 16 months, and their productivities were compared. Although the total colony productivity increased, the per capita productivity did not increase with increasing foundress numbers. Colonies with larger foundress numbers did not produce significantly heavier progeny and did not produce them significantly faster than colonies with fewer individuals. The conspecific usurpers preferred to usurp single foundress colonies more often than multiple foundress colonies. Therefore, protection from conspecific usurpers might be an advantage of multiple foundress associations. About 10% of the multiple foundress nests experienced queen turnovers. This provides a finite chance to reproduce and gain some individual fitness for workers, at some future point of time. Wasps may not be similar in their reproductive abilities and those who are less fertile might be joining others who are more fertile. Testing such a hypothesis would require that individuals who have chosen to be subordinate cofoundresses in multiple foundress associations are forced to nest alone. During this study a total of 77 nests was monitored. Cofoundresses forced to nest alone had significantly lower productivity than natural solitary foundresses and also queens of multiple foundress nests who were forced to nest alone. This suggested that wasps are not similar either in their reproductive ability or brood rearing ability or both. To ascertain which of the factors was responsible for lower productivity in cofoundresses, productivity of wasps isolated into laboratory cages was compared. There was no significant difference in the productivity of isolated cofoundresses and isolated queens. This suggests that wasps are not subfertile per se but probably differ in their foraging and brood rearing abilities. The certainty with which resources are brought into the nest and therefore, the certainty with which the mean per capita productivity is attained, provides an automatic benefit of group living according to the central limit theorem. This prediction was also tested. The coefficient of variation of mean per capita productivity decreased significantly with increasing foundress numbers. Behavioural observations on another 36 colonies, with different number of adults, showed that the coefficient of variation of food brought to the nest and the rate at which larvae were fed, decreased significantly with increasing number of adults. A computer simulation was used to find out the effect of group size on the variance in feed larva. Assuming that larvae cannot be starved for too long and cannot utilize more than a certain amount of food at a time, the fitness of larvae was found to increase with an increase in the number of adults attending the nest. Previous work on R. marginata has been largely confined to postemergence colonies. An attempt was made to look at and compare social organization in preemergence colonies with that of postemergence colonies. It was found that the egg layer was not the most dominant animal in the well-established preemergence colonies. There were no detectable differences in the social organization of the preemergence colonies (of this study) with that of postemergence colonies of the earlier studies. Perhaps my conclusions drawn from studying preemergence colonies are therefore applicable more widely to the species. It can be concluded that the apparent increased fitness of the worker strategy over solitary foundress strategy does not come from any increase in per capita productivity, but comes instead from (i) the greater predictability with which the mean per capita productivity is attained in larger colonies, (ii) the lower probabilities of usurpation of larger colonies, (iii) queen turnovers that provide opportunities for workers in multiple foundress colonies to gain some direct individual fitness and (iv) the lower brood rearing abilities of workers in multiple foundress nests that make the worker strategy the best of a bad job.

The mutualism between the dioecious Ficus tinctoria and its pollinators was studied at Hsitzewan, Kaohsiung. I investigated the phenology of F. tinctoria from December 2004 to May 2006. Wasps trapped in sticky boards were recorded from April 2005 to May 2006. The average diameter of receptive figs (B phase) of female F. tinctoria was significantly different from that of functional male trees (P < 0.01), but both with similar coloration. The durations of pre-receptive figs (A phase) through wasp- releasing figs (D phase) or mature figs (E phase) in F. tinctoria were slight longer in winter and spring (8.3-8.8 weeks) than in summer and autumn (6.8-7.0 weeks). The receptive figs were asynchronous both within-tree and among-trees. The receptive figs occurred in every month of 2005 and without seasonality. There were considerable overlaps (82.6%) in the receptive figs between functional male and female trees. The frequency of tender leaf phase of F. tinctoria was positively correlated with local rainfall and temperature, but the frequency of leaf falling phase was negatively correlated with them. The frequency of receptive figs of female trees was only positively correlated with rainfall, and the frequency of their interforal figs (C phase) were both negatively correlated with rainfall and temperature. Fig production of functional male F. tinctoria was not correlated with rainfall and temperature. There are five species of fig wasps, including one species of pollinator (Liporrh opalumgibbosae), one species of Sycoscapter, two species of Philotrypesis, and one species of Neosycophila. No significant difference was found in the average number of 4 species of fig wasps from D phase figs (6.3 pollinators, 8.8 Philotrypesis sp.1, 5.7 P. sp.2, and 5.7 Sycoscapter sp.1 per fig). In addition, one species of Sycophila (Eurytomidae) was also found inside figs of F. tinctoria. The coordination between D phase figs of male F. tinctoria to its B phase was iii 26.2%, which was similar to the coordination of it to B phase of female trees (29.5%). However, more pollinators arrived on male trees than that on female trees. The coordination between pollinators and B phase figs of male trees (43.0%) was higher than that of female trees (14.6%). Fig-pollinator mutualism in F. tinctoria is probably maintained by its asynchronous phenology, and aseasonal changes of the receptive figs. Seed production at female trees can be maintained by a small size of pollinator populations.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Western Washington University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-166). Also available in electronic format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Orientador: Márcia Regina Brochetto Braga / Banca: Regina Barretto Cicarelli / Banca: Frederico Gonzalez Colombo Arnoldi / Resumo: Polybia paulista ou popularmente "paulistinha" é uma vespa social da família Vespidae. Possui hábitos urbanos e grande ocorrência no Sudeste do Brasil, especialmente no Estado de São Paulo, onde tem causado muitos acidentes de importância médica. Na composição de seu veneno encontra-se um potente alérgeno, a proteína Antígeno 5 (Ag5) e embora sua função biológica ainda seja desconhecida, este alérgeno é responsável por importantes reações imunológicas cruzadas com o Ag5 do veneno de outros insetos sociais e com outras proteínas de eucariotos. A importância da reatividade cruzada em pacientes alérgicos ao veneno de vespas sociais é inquestionável, pois estas interações têm impacto direto sobre o diagnóstico e a seleção da melhor conduta terapêutica. Os diagnósticos de alergia são baseados na detecção de anticorpos do tipo IgE específico ao veneno por testes cutâneos ou de sangue. No entanto, respostas falso-positivas decorrentes da reatividade cruzada e respostas falso-negativas provenientes da baixa quantidade de IgE detectada, dificultam a interpretação dos resultados. A sequência completa de cDNA (621 pb) do alérgeno Ag5 do veneno da vespa P. paulista, foi clonada e a análise dos nucleotídeos revelou uma similaridade de 99% com a vespa Polybia scutellaris. Anticorpos policlonais foram produzidos contra a fração eletroforética protéica do Ag5 (25 kDA) de P. paulista e analisados imunologicamente por Western blotting. Os resultados demonstraram que os anticorpos reconheceram especificamente o alérgeno Ag5 no veneno bruto de P. paulista bem como, desenvolveram maior reação imunológica cruzada com os alérgenos Ag5 do veneno das vespas do gênero Polybia, embora não se descarte a possibilidade de ocorrência de reação cruzada com venenos de outros insetos sociais... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Polybia paulista, commonly known as "paulistinha", is a social wasp of the family Vespidae. This species occurs in urban areas and is frequent in the Southeastern Brazil, especially in the State of São Paulo, where it has been responsible for many accidents of medical significance. A potent allergen, the protein antigen 5 (Ag5), is an important compound of the wasp venom. Although its biological function remains unknown, this component is responsible for substantial cross-immunological reactions with the Ag5 of venoms of other social insects and with eukaryotic proteins. The importance of cross-reactivity in allergic patients to the wasp venoms is unquestionable, because these interactions present a direct impact on the diagnosis and on the selection of the therapeutic treatment. Allergenic diagnoses are based on the detection of IgE specific to the venom via cutaneous or blood tests. However, sometimes they are hampered by false-positive responses as a result of cross-reactivity and false-negative responses that can occur due to the low amount of IgE detected as consequence of the low sensitivity of the test. The fulllength cDNA (621 bp) from the venom allergen Ag5 wasp P. paulista was cloned and nucleotide analysis revealed 99% of similarity with the wasp Polybia scutellaris. Polyclonal antibodies were produced against the electrophoretic protein fraction of Ag5 (25 kDa) of P. paulista and immunologically analyzed by Western blotting. The results showed that the antibodies strongly recognized the allergen Ag5 in the venom of P. paulista and developed higher cross-immune reaction with the same allergen in wasp venoms of the genus Polybia, although the possibility of cross reaction with other insect venoms not tested in this study cannot be excluded. The model carried out for the Ag5 P. paulista revealed the... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre