Zethus rufinodus (Latreille)

Genaro, Julio A., 2011, Vespidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of Puerto Rico, West Indies, Insecta Mundi 2011 (202), pp. 1-35 : 15-16

Zethus rufinodus (Latreille)

( Fig. 48 )

Eumenes rufinoda Latreille, 1806 : Tab. 14 fig. 4; 1809: 137 - “in Americae insulis” (lectotype male MNHN). � Bohart and Stange 1962: 31 (designation of lectotype) .

Zethus rufinodis ; Lamarck 1817: 85.

Zethus rufinodus ; Dewitz 1881: 200 (Portorico). � Ståhl 1882: 201. � Gundlach 1887: 158. � Ashmead 1900: 312. � Zavattari 1912: 11 (key), 23 (in division Zethusculus ). � Wolcott 1924: 41 ; 1936: 568; 1941: 156; 1951: 860. � Torres and Snelling 1992: 93.

Zethus rufinodus monensis Bohart and Stange, 1965: 138 (key), 147, fig. 98, male, female (in subgenus Zethusculus ) � “West Indies: Mona Island” (holotype male MCZH). REVISED STATUS.

Zethus rufinodus virginicus Bohart and Stange, 1965: 138 (key), 147, male (in subgenus Zethusculus ) � “S. Thomas” (UZMC). REVISED STATUS.

Aside from Greater Puerto Rico, this species is recorded from Antigua ( Bohart and Stange 1965). In the revision by Bohart and Stange (1965), it was treated as a polytypic species with three subspe� cies, two of them described in that revision. The subspecies Zethus rufinodus monensis , from Mona, and Zethus rufinodus virginicus , from St. Thomas, are very minor color variants, differing in relative amounts of pale markings on the scutellum and metanotum, and the shading of red and yellow. We see no useful reason to maintain these subspecies, and herewith synonymize them.

Wolcott (1941, 1951) has recorded this species nesting in rotten fenceposts, and provided flower records. According to Wolcott (1951) its burrows may be so numerous as to require replacement of the fencepost.

SUBFAMILY POLISTINAE

The two genera recorded here are each the only member of their respective tribe ( Carpenter 1991). Polistes is cosmopolitan, but has more species described from the Neotropics than any other Region, while Mischocyttarus is primarily Neotropical, with a few species in the Nearctic Region. Species of the two genera form nearly the entirety of the social wasp fauna in the Caribbean.

A recent key to the polistine genera in the New World is provided by Carpenter (2004b), and species keys are to be found in Richards (1978).

The concept of the phylogenetic relationships among polistine genera has varied in recent analy� ses. In the analysis of adult morphology by Carpenter (1991), Polistes was the sister�group of all other polistine genera, with the position of Mischocyttarus not resolved relative to the tribes Ropalidiini and Epiponini . The position of both Polistes and Mischocyttarus was unresolved in the analysis of nest archi� tecture by Wenzel (1993). Polistes was the sister�group of all other polistine genera, with Mischocyttarus sister�group of the remaining genera in turn in the combined analysis of adult and larval morphology and nest architecture by Wenzel and Carpenter (1994). With the addition of molecular data ( Arévalo et al. 2004) Polistes was still the sister�group of all other polistine genera with the position of Mischocyttarus unresolved again. But the relationships of the tribes were different in the combined analysis of molecular and morphological data by Pickett and Carpenter (2010), with Polistes the sister�group of Epiponini , and Mischocyttarus the sister�group of this clade. The matter is far from settled.

TRIBE MISCHOCYTTARINI

Figures

Figures 45-50. Images from life of vespid wasps from Greater Puerto Rico. 45) Pachodynerus atratus gathering mud up for nest construction on a path, Culebra Island. 46) Pachodynerus tibialis involved in the same activity, Mona Island. 47) Zeta abdominale with a mud ball ready for transportation to the nest, Puerto Rico. 48) Zethus rufinodus, Puerto Rico. 49) Mischocyttarus phthisicus on the nest, Puerto Rico. 50) Polistes crinitus on the nest, Mona Island.