The study of relationships between living beings is essential for understanding the functioning of the ecosystem for the management and conservation of biota, especially in rich and threatened biomes such as the Brazilian Cerrado. Therefore, this study aims to report the occupation of abandoned social wasp’s nests by termites in this biome. In this study, the occupation of two abandoned nests of Synoeca surinama (L.) by the termite Nasutitermes obscurus (Holmgren), recorded by chance, in April 2023 in a gallery forest with the same vegetation type of the Cerrado, located in the Grande Sertão Veredas National Park in southeastern Brazil. Both social wasp nests had their cells occupied by termites, which may have been used as a satellite nest for N. obscurus. This is the first record of a termite species occupying a social wasp’s nests; however, further studies are needed to better elucidate this relationship.

Entre as espécies de formigas economicamente importantes, devido aos danos que muitas vezes causam à agricultura, as mais significativas são as formigas-cortadeiras por possuírem o hábito de cortar e transportar fragmentos vegetais diversos para os seus ninhos subterrâneos. O objetivo deste estudo foi caracterizar alguns aspectos ecológicos de Atta sexdens piriventris Santschi no município de Capinzal, estado de Santa Catarina, Sul do Brasil. O material de origem vegetal transportado pelas formigas apresentou como característica folhas verdes/frescas 57%, folhas secas 23%, pedaços de frutos 7%, sementes 7% e flores 3%. Já os de origem animal tiveram uma representação de 3%, e eram compostos por pedaços de insetos. A média de distância percorrida pelas formigas em busca do substrato foi de 12,54 m.Ecological Aspects of Atta sexdens piriventris Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Municipality of Capinzal, Santa Catarina, BrazilAbstract. Among the economically important species of ants, due to the damage they often cause the agriculture the most significant are the leaf-cutting ants because they have the habit of cut and transport various plant fragments to their underground nests. The objective of this study was characterized some ecological aspects of Atta sexdens piriventris Santschi in the municipality of Capinzal, Santa Catarina state, Southern Brazil. The plant material transported by the ants was 57% of green leaves, 23% of dried leaves, 7% of fruits, 7% of seeds, 3% of flowers and only 3% of animal parts, mostly compounds by insect parts. The average distance walked by the ants in search of the substrate was 12.54 m.

The aim of this paper was to determine the species diversity and frequency of foraging performed by bees in fragment of degraded forest in a Cerrado-Atlantic Forest ecotone area, also considering the nesting habit of each species. The foraging frequency of each bee species in the main floral sources was recorded for 12 consecutive months. The nesting site was used to sort the bees into guilds: above-ground nesting bees, ground-nesting bees, and both below and above-ground nesting bees. The guild of ground-nesting bees had 24 species and accounted for 17.48 % of the foraging rate, while above-ground nesting bees were represented by 12 species which made 8.89 % of the foraging rate, and both below and above-ground nesting bees comprised five species which made 0.43 % of the foraging rate. Africanized honeybee performed 73.20 % of the foraging flight, and presented a broad food niche. Therefore, in the forest fragment studied, two types of impacts which make difficult the survival and maintenance of the native bee fauna were observed: the dominance over floral resources by the exotic species the Africanized honeybees; the small number of large trees.