An unusual prey record for Astata lugens Taschenberg (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Astatidae)

Astatid wasps are referred to in literature as specialized predators of hemipterans. We present an unusual prey record for the genus Astata in a Cerrado area (Savannah), at Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Goiás State, Brazil. We collected one specimen of Astata lugens Taschenberg carrying an immature cricket (Gryllidae) as prey.


Introduction
Wasps of the family Astatidae are specialized predators of Hemiptera (Bohart and Menke 1976;Hanson and Menke 1995;O'Neill 2001;Amarante 2006). Females dig a nest in the soil, which ends in single or multiple cells. They hunt hemipterans that they completely paralyze, to feed their offspring (Evans 1957).
The only genus present in South America is Astata. This genus is distributed worldwide except absent in Australia. It is the most diverse genus in the family, with 82 described species (Pulawski 2018). Twenty-five species have been recorded from the Neotropical Region, ten species from South America, and at least six from Brazil (Parker 1968;Nascimento and Overall 1980;Amarante 2002Amarante , 2005. The prey of this wasps are immature and adult hemipterans; of Astata mainly Pentatomidae (Evans 1957), but other Hemiptera families as well, e.g., Acanthososmatidae, Cydnidae, Lygaeidae, and Scutelleridae (Tsuneki 1947;Herting 1971;Krombein 1972;Bitsch et al. 2007;Gros 2008). There are no prey records for Astata lugens, and herein we present our observations on the prey of this species, which is highly unusual for the genus.

Material and methods
The observation was carried out on the border at Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, São Jorge, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Goiás State, Brazil (-14.160958° -47.791376°, 1,086 m a.s.l.) ( Figure 1). The vegetation is composed mainly of tropical savannah (Cerrado). This area is considered a biodiversity hotspot (Cardoso da Silva and Bates 2002), with a high rate of endemism (Mendonça et al. 1998). According to Morrone (2014), this area is located in Cerrado Biogeographical Province, at Chacoan sub-region. Following the Köppen's (1936) classification, the predominant climate is tropical with dry winter (Aw) (Alvares et al. 2013). The annual average temperature is 25°C, and annual average precipitation is 1,600 mm. The rainy season runs from October to April, the dry season extends from May until September (Nimer 1989;Felfili et al. 2007).

Results
On April 07 2009, around sunset, on a trail in Cerrado sensu stricto formation, two of us (BMT and VC) observed a wasp carrying her prey. This individual was grasping the prey by the antennal base with her mandibles, walking forward, jumping, and flying short distances close to the soil level. The wasp and her prey were caught using a transparent plastic bag from a cigarette pack, the only thing that we had in our hands at that moment. We did not find the nest due to our anxiety to collect the prey. The voucher specimens of both specimens were pinned and deposited in the Hymenoptera Collection of the Museu da Biodiversidade at Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (MuBio/UFGD), with number: Hym-00165-S.
The wasp was identified using the key of Parker (1968). The cricket specimen (Figures 2 A, B, and C) was determined as a juvenile gryllid with keys of Triplehorn and Johnson (2005). The identification was confirmed by Dr. Edison Zefa at Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil.

Discussion
The biological records for Astata species comes from North America, Central America and Eurasia. This prey record of a different order of insects is completely unusual for this genus; expose the lack of knowledge about the biology of Neotropical species. This record may have been an occasional prey, or it is possible that in the Neotropical Region, this wasp genus exhibits different trophic interactions of species from Holarctic origin. To elucidate this hypothesis, objective studies must be carried out.