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A new species, Subancistrocerus pakistanensis Qasim, Carpenter et Rafique sp. nov. is described and illustrated from Pakistan, based on several specimens collected in the Multan Region. Genus Subancistrocerus is recorded for the first time from Pakistan.

Taxonomy of the potter wasps of the genus Labus from Vietnam is reviewed, with six species recorded. Of them, one species previously identified as L. clypeatus van der Vecht, 1935 is described as new, namely L. angulus, sp. nov. Another new species, Labus obtusussp. nov., is also described. In addition, a key to all species of the genus occurring in Vietnam is given.

ispartof: Cladistics vol:11 issue:2 pages:211-218 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Taxonomy of the paper wasps of the subgenus Gyrostoma of the polistine genusPolistesfrom Vietnam is treated, with a key to all the five species occurring in Vietnam, including one described herein as new to science under the namePolistes longussp. nov.Nests ofP. gigasandP. longussp. nov.are also described.

A total of 38 species belonging to 26 genera of Eumeninae are recorded from Hong Kong, among which two new species, namely Allorhynchium radiatumsp. nov. and Orientalicesa nigrasp. nov. are described and illustrated. Symmorphus tsushimanus Yamane, 1990 is newly recorded from China and its female is firstly described. Eighteen species are newly recorded for Hong Kong. Antepipona ferruginea Kim & Yamane, 2003 is synonymized with Antepipona rufescens (Smith, 1857) (syn. nov.) and Eumenes quadratus obsoletus Dover, 1926 is synonymised with Eumenes quadratus quadratus Smith, 1852 (syn. nov.). A checklist, a key and illustrations to Hong Kong Eumeninae are also provided.

Two new species of eumenine wasps were described from Panama and Peru, namelyPirhosigma abregoiGarcete-Barrett & Hermessp. nov.andP. cambraiGarcete-Barrett & Ferreirasp. nov.Lectotypes are designated forEumenes deformata barberoiBertoni andEumenes superficialis mondaiensisBertoni.Pirhosigma mearimense putumayenseGiordani Soikastat. nov.is treated as a color variation of the typicalP. mearimense(Zavattari). Additions to the key by Ferreira et al. (2017) are made and an updated catalog for species included in the genus is provided.

The genus Polistes is one of the most species-rich and widely distributed groups of social wasps and a model taxon for studies of social behavior. Almost half the Polistes world fauna occurs in the New World, but their classification has been unstable due in part to the scarcity of phylogenetic studies. We investigated the phylogeny of the New World Polistes by combining a previously existing molecular dataset with a new morphological and behavioral matrix for 90 of the 93 New World species. All analyses support a single origin for the New World Polistes. All five traditionally defined New World subgenera (Aphanilopterus, Epicnemius, Fuscopolistes, Onerarius, and Palisotius) were monophyletic, but the relationships among them varied across datasets. Our results, with an expanded phenotypic dataset, improved taxonomic sampling, and enhanced clade support relative to previous studies, strongly support a classification based on five subgenera, which are all diagnosable groups supported by clear morphological synapomorphies. Hence, we propose the revalidation of previously proposed subgenera; we provide a taxonomic account of each subgenus and an identification key to all species of New World Polistes.

Long, Khuat Dang, Van Achterberg, Cornelis, Carpenter, James M., Oanh, Nguyen Thi (2020): Review of the genus Wroughtonia Cameron, 1899 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Helconinae), with the description of 12 new species from Vietnam. American Museum Novitates 2020 (3953): 1-56, DOI: 10.1206/3953.1, URL: https://bioone.org/journals/american-museum-novitates/volume-2020/issue-3953/3953.1/Review-of-the-Genus-Wroughtonia-Cameron-1899-Hymenoptera-Braconidae-Helconinae/10.1206/3953.1.full

Hornets in the genus Vespa (Vespidae, Vespinae) are social wasps. They are primarily predators of other insects, and some species are known to attack and feed on honeybees (Apis mellifera L.), which makes them a serious threat to apiculture. Hornet species identification can be sometimes difficult because of the amount of intraspecific color and size variation. This has resulted in many species-level synonyms, scattered literature, and taxonomic keys only useful for local populations. We present a key to the world species, information on each species, as well as those intercepted at United States Ports of Entry during the last decade. Images of all the species and some of the subspecies previously described are also included.

Three new species, namely Stenodyneriellusangustussp. n. from Thailand, S.profundussp. n. from Philippines, and S.longitergussp. n. from Indonesia, are described and illustrated in detail. Stenodyneriellusmaculatus Gusenleitner, 2013 is newly recorded from Vietnam. Two keys to some related species are also provided.

Three new species namely Labus edentatus sp. n. from China L. sparsipunctus sp. n. from Thailand and L. robustus sp. n. from Indonesia are described and illustrated. Both L. amoenus van der Vecht 1935 and L. pusillus van der Vecht 1963 are newly recorded from China and Vietnam and L. angularis van der Vecht 1935 is also firstly recorded from China. An updated key to the world species of the genus Labus is provided.

The hypothesis that eusociality originated once in Vespidae has shaped interpretation of social evolution for decades and has driven the supposition that preimaginal morphophysiological differences between castes were absent at the outset of eusociality. Many researchers also consider casteless nest-sharing an antecedent to eusociality. Together, these ideas endorse a stepwise progression of social evolution in wasps (solitary → casteless nest-sharing → eusociality with rudimentary behavioral castes → eusociality with preimaginal caste-biasing (PCB) → morphologically differentiated castes). Here, we infer the phylogeny of Vespidae using sequence data generated via anchored hybrid enrichment from 378 loci across 136 vespid species and perform ancestral state reconstructions to test whether rudimentary and monomorphic castes characterized the initial stages of eusocial evolution. Our results reject the single origin of eusociality hypothesis, contest the supposition that eusociality emerged from a casteless nest-sharing ancestor, and suggest that eusociality in Polistinae + Vespinae began with castes having morphological differences. An abrupt appearance of castes with ontogenetically established morphophysiological differences conflicts with the current conception of stepwise social evolution and suggests that the climb up the ladder of sociality does not occur through sequential mutation. Phenotypic plasticity and standing genetic variation could explain how cooperative brood care evolved in concert with nest-sharing and how morphologically dissimilar castes arose without a rudimentary intermediate. Furthermore, PCB at the outset of eusociality implicates a subsocial route to eusociality in Polistinae + Vespinae, emphasizing the role of mother–daughter interactions and subfertility (i.e. the cost component of kin selection) in the origin of workers.

International audience; In French Guiana, the arboreal nests of the swarm-founding social wasp Protopolybia emortualis (Polistinae) are generally found near those of the arboreal dolichoderine ant Dolichoderus bidens. These wasp nests are typically protected by an envelope, which in turn is covered by an additional carton 'shelter' with structure resembling the D. bidens nests. A few wasps constantly guard their nest to keep D. bidens workers from approaching. When alarmed by a strong disturbance, the ants invade the host tree foliage whereas the wasps retreat into their nest. Notably, there is no chemical convergence in the cuticular profiles of the wasps and ants sharing a tree. The aggressiveness of D. bidens likely protects the wasps from army ant raids, but the ants do not benefit from the presence of the wasps; therefore, this relationship corresponds to a kind of commensalism. (C) 2018 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The distribution of Zethus Fabicius, 1804, in the Oriental and Palaearctic regions is discussed, with special reference to the northeastern Oriental species. A newly discovered species, Z. velamellatus Tan, sp. n. from China (Zhejiang), is described and illustrated. The first key to species of Zethus Fabricius from China is presented. Zethus nigerrimus Gusenleitner, 2001 is recorded for the first time from China and redescribed.

A new species of potter wasp from South America, Ancistrocerus sur sp. n., is described. A species key and checklist for all described Ancistrocerus that occur south of the Rio Grande are provided. New synonymy includes Odynerus bolivianus Brèthes = Ancistrocerus pilosus (de Saussure), while the subspecies bustamente discopictus Bequaert, lineativentris kamloopsensis Bequaert, lineativentris sinopis Bohart, tuberculocephalussutterianus (de Saussure), and pilosus ecuadorianus Bertoni, are all sunk under their respective nominotypical taxa.

Three wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) fossils in Cretaceous amber (Late Albian) of northern Myanmar are described. Two are new species of the Mesozoic genus Curiosivespa (Rasnitsyn): C. zigrasi sp.n. and C. striata sp.n. The third species, Protovespa haxairei gen.n. et sp.n., has a combination of features unique among Mesozoic Priorvespinae and the extant subfamilies. These well preserved fossils provide new morphological data for a cladistic analysis of the basal lineages of Vespidae. Results suggest that Euparagiinae is the sister group of all other Vespidae. The new genus Protovespa appears more closely related to extant Masarinae, Eumeninae and social wasps than to Priorvespinae. We assign it to a new subfamily: Protovespinae. Finally, fossil information combined with a phylogenetic tree shows that the main groups of Vespidae probably evolved during the Early Cretaceous. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1E7E4796-6E70-4D81-BB34-0FEEA765DC25.

The phylogenetic relationships among genera of the subfamily Vespinae (yellowjackets and hornets) remain unclear. Yellowjackets and hornets constitute one of the only two lineages of highly eusocial wasps, and the distribution of key behavioral traits correlates closely with the current classification of the group. The potential of the Vespinae to elucidate the evolution of social life, however, remains limited due to ambiguous genus-level relationships. Here, we address the relationships among genera within the Vespinae using transcriptomic (RNA-seq) data. We sequenced the transcriptomes of six vespid wasps, including three of the four genera recognized in the Vespinae, combined our data with publicly available transcriptomes, and assembled two matrices comprising 1,507 and 3,356 putative single-copy genes. The results of our phylogenomic analyses recover Dolichovespula as more closely related to Vespa than to Vespula, therefore challenging the prevailing hypothesis of yellowjacket (Vespula+Dolichovespula) monophyly. This suggests that traits such as large colony size and high paternity arose in the genus Vespula following its early divergence from the remaining vespine genera.

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T10:47:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-01-01 Neotropical swarm-founding wasps are divided into 19 genera in the tribe Epiponini (Vespidae, Polistinae). They display extensive variation in several colony-level traits that make them an attractive model system for reconstructing the evolution of social phenotypes, including caste dimorphism and nest architecture. Epiponini has been upheld as a solid monophyletic group in most phylogenetic analyses carried out so far, supported by molecular, morphological and behavioural data. Recent molecular studies, however, propose different relationships among the genera of swarm-founding wasps. This study is based on the most comprehensive epiponine sampling so far and was analyzed by combining morphological, nesting and molecular data. The resulting phylogenetic hypothesis shows many of the traditional clades but still impacts the way certain behavioural characters, such as nest structure and castes, evolved, and thus requires some re-interpretations. Angiopolybia as sister to the remaining Epiponini implies that nest envelopes and a casteless system are plesiomorphic in the tribe. Molecular dating points to an early tribal diversification during the Eocene (c. 55–38 Ma), with the major differentiation of current genera concentrated in the Oligocene/Miocene boundary. Depto. de Zoologia e Botânica Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE) Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP) Depto. Biologia Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP) Universidade de São Paulo (USP) Powdermill Nature Reserve Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1795 Route 381 Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History Depto. de Zoologia e Botânica Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE) Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP)

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-12T01:39:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-09-17 The genus Gastrodynerus is here revised based on external morphology and male genitalia. Bohart (1984) proposed Gastrodynerus as a new genus with three species: G. vanduzeei (Bohart 1948), G. searsi Bohart, 1984, and G. stangei Bohart, 1984. Later, Rodriguez-Palafox (1996) added G. tacubayae (de Saussure, 1857). Herein, we describe four new species from Central America and South America: G. guatemalensis sp. nov.; G. barretti sp. nov.; G. aimara sp. nov. and G. yungaensis sp. nov. After this taxonomic revision, the Gastrodynerus includes eight species widely distributed in the New World. An identification key is provided for all of the species. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE) Departamento de Zoologia e Botânica Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE) Departamento de Zoologia e Botânica

Paper wasps (subfamily Polistinae) are one of the four main groups of eusocial insects in the Neotropics. They are medically important for the frequent stings inflicted on humans, but at the same time are valuable predators of pest insects. Nonetheless, there are no updated keys for the identification of the Central American species. Here we provide keys to the 18 genera and 106 species known to occur in Costa Rica, illustrated with one hundred original line drawings. Resumen Las avispas de la subfamilia Polistinae son uno de los cuatro grupos principales de insectos eusociales en el neotrópico, y son de importancia económica tanto por sus picaduras como por su papel en control biológico. Sin embargo, no existen claves actualizadas para la identificación de las especies de América Central. Aquí se proveen claves ilustradas para los 18 géneros y las 106 especies conocidas de Costa Rica y se incluyen cien dibujos originales.

A new species of the social wasp genus Chartergellus is described, Chartergellus trinitatis Carpenter and Andena, NEW SPECIES. Male genitalia are described and comparative remarks are given.