MORPHOLOGICAL CASTE DIFFERENCES IN THE NEOTROPICAL SWARM-FOUNDING POLISTINE WASPS - PARACHARTERGUS SMITHII (HYMENOPTERA, VESPIDAE)

As part of a series of papers aimed at studying caste in epiponine was ps, this paper deals with Parachartergus smithii. The whole female pop ulation of a mature nest (131 workers, 14 intermediates and 5 queens) was measured and dissected. Canonical discriminant analyses indicated slight morphological caste differentiation. Mahalanobis distances for queen-worker, queen-intermediate and intermediate-worker were 10.33, 1 0.86 and 0.90, respectively. However, ovaries were much more developed in queens than in workers and intermediates indicating clear physiolo gical differences. In addition, castes were distinguished by color pat terns in the frons, clypeus, mandibles, gena and wings. An brief compa rison of caste differences in the Epiponini reveals both allometric an d non-allometric patterns.