Polistes carnifex and Polistes major

Species of Polistes often are differentiated based on very minute details. For instance, the US species of P. carolina and P. rubiginosus require microscopy to separate entirely-red specimens. Another pair of nearly cryptic species exists from the southern border of the US through South America: P. carnifex and P. major major. I've attempted to gather information about these two species in the scientific literature

P. carnifex

• Females: enlarged head, long oculo-malar space (space between eyes and mandibles <1/3 eye height), clypeus generally not touching eyes over much distance, size 17-22 mm (tentative: by inspection, antennae of females appear to be mostly orange as opposed to just contrasting tips)

• Males: pentagonal clypeus

• Distribution: US (Texas southern tip?); Mexico; Honduras; Costa Rica, Colombia; Venezuela; Guyanas; Peru, Brazil, Paraguay; Argentina

• Reference image: http://v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=96373
• Darker form: https://bugguide.net/node/view/716676

P. major major

• Females: less enlarged head, short oculo-malar space (>1/3 eye height), clypeus noticeably touching eyes, propodeum coarsely ridged, size 13-17 mm (tentative: by inspection, antennae of females have orange only at the tips)

• Males: more quadrilateral (subquadrate) clypeus, clypeus not touching eyes, size 16-17 mm

• Distribution: US (Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Texas southern tip), Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Hispaniola Island

• Reference image: https://bugguide.net/node/view/498521

References

2017. Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775) in GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-01-23.

2017. Polistes major major in GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-01-23.

1944. Bequeart, J.C. The social Vespidae of the Guianas, particularly of British Guiana (Hymenoptera). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. 94, no. 7, pp. 249-304.

1925. Bequeart, J.C. Two new color forms of Polistes major Palisot de Beauvois from California and Arizona (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Entomological news, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 7-13.

1902. Viereck, H.L. Notes on Vespoidea. Entomological news and proceedings of the entomological section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 273-274.

Publicado el enero 26, 2018 06:30 MAÑANA por jonathan142 jonathan142

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