Agelaia multipicta
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Agelaia multipicta is a swarm-founding, highly eusocial wasp that lives in Mexico, Argentina, Trinidad and southern Brazil. It nests in natural cavities such as hollow trees and aggressively defends the nest from ants, who are brood predators. The workers and queens are morphologically distinguished by ovarian development as well as external features such as a larger petiole and gaster in the queen. Like other carrion-eating (necrophagous) wasp species, A. multipicta plays a scavenging role in the ecosystem. Agelaia multipicta was described by the Irish entomologist Alexander Henry Haliday in 1836.
James Carpenter's taxonomic key describes characteristic features of this species such as that the "hind-wing with jugal lobe normal, not reduced," and that the head has an occipital carina present. Additionally, in A. multipicta Carpenter notes the "pronotum without sinuous carina" and the "body without pale maculations, cuticle partly to entirely bluish metallic or yellowish with some bluish highlights; head in lateral view with tempera as wide or wider than eye at ocular sinus"
The queen and worker castes differ significantly in appearance and ovarian development, reflecting... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
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More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Agelaia multipicta sighting in São Paulo on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 144th most-seen of the 832 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and August–February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Agelaia multipicta in São Paulo on a given day, against under 5% in March–May and July, the lowest months.
Among the best
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Agelaia multipicta sightings, São Paulo ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Curitiba (Brazil, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Agelaia multipicta is recorded against all the insects logged in São Paulo (49 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
