Species Richness and Abundance of Social Wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae) Associated with Shaded Cocoa Agroforests (Theobroma cacao L.) in Southern Bahia State, Brazil

Traditional cocoa agroforests of southern Bahia in Brazil, locally known as “cabrucas”, are highly relevant for sheltering forest species, being thus recognized as a biodiversity-friendly agricultural system. However, despite their role in biodiversity conservation, little is known about the ability of cocoa agroforests to maintain social wasp assemblages in human-modified landscapes. Here, we present the first list of social wasp species recorded in shaded cocoa agroforests in southern Bahia. In total, we collected 25 species of social wasps belonging to nine genera, representing 20% of the known species richness for the entire northeastern region of Brazil. In particular, Angiopolybia pallens (Lepeletier), Agelaia angulata (Fabricius), and Agelaia centralis (Cameron) were the most abundant species, with 186, 70, and 36 individuals, respectively. Notably, we report six previously unrecorded species from Bahia state: Agelaia flavipennis (Ducke), Polybia emaciata Lucas, Polybia quadricincta (Saussure), Agelaia angulicollis (Spinola), Parachartegus smithii (Saussure) and Protopolybia acutiscutis (Cameron). Of these six species, three are recorded for the first time in the Northeast region of Brazil and two for the Atlantic Forest biome. Based on our findings, we emphasize that cocoa agroforests can contribute to maintaining the diversity of social wasps in human-modified landscapes.