Ropalidia nigrocerasina Polašek, 2025

Observation.

Malawi • 6 ♀♀, 3 ♂♂, nest; Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve; 12.85013°S, 34.17112°E; 27 Nov 2020; obs Markus Meiner; (Meiner 2020).

Nest.

One nest of this species was observed in Malawi. In contrast to a very similar species R. valentula Polašek, 2025 that builds regular discoid nests, this species seems to be building nests that are more irregular. The observed nest consisted of two nearly equally-sized lobes, with cocoon caps evenly distributed in both lobes. This might be a similar nesting pattern previously reported in R. ignobilis (Wenzel, 1992), where an accessory lobe is built to accommodate the production of males and queens, as opposed to the initial lobe that is used to rear workers. The nest was suspended from a roughly cut wooden plank.