Angiopolybia Araujo, 1946

Barroso, Paulo Cezar Salgado, Menezes, Rodolpho Santos Telles, de Oliveira, Marcio Luiz & Somavilla, Alexandre, 2022, A systematic review of the Neotropical social wasp genus Angiopolybia Araujo, 1946 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae): species delimitation, morphological diagnosis, and geographical distribution, Arthropod Systematics & amp; Phylogeny 80, pp. 75-97 : 75

3.1. Revision of Angiopolybia Araujo, 1946

Rhopalidia Lepeletier, 1836: 538 (a genus with two species); ICZN, 1976: 240, 241 (Opinion 1051 - suppressed under the powers of the plenary, nº. 2072 in the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology). Type species, Rhopalidia pallens Lepeletier, 1836, subsequent designation by Schulz, 1912: 60.

Angiopolybia Araujo, 1946: 166, 169 (designation of new name for Stelopolybia Ducke, 1914). Specie-type, Rhopalidia pallens Lepeletier, 1836 (original designation).

Stelopolybia (Angiopolybia) Richards and Richards, 1951: 69; Richards, 1973: 49 (suppression of Rhopalidia Lepeletier, 1836 by ICZN, 1976).

Diagnosis.

Lateral ocellus separated from the eye by two times its diameter. Compound eyes with bristles. Clypeus with acute apex, lateral margins parallel in part upper and rectangular lateral lobes. Short malar space. Occiput with carina. Labial palpus with four segments. Proepisternum with reduced lateral carina. Pronotal carina limited to a small length in the center of the pronotum and acute. Pronotum with lateral fovea. Mesoscutum with reduced posterolateral lamella. Dorsal groove of the mesoepisternum present and transverse to the sclerite. Metasomal tergum I, in dorsal view, with lateral margins diverging gradually from the base to apex.

Additional comments.

Considering the Gymnopolybia description (currently Agelaia ) from Stelopolybia species (currently Angiopolybia ) by Ducke (1914), these genera are not well-defined by the proposed characters. Based on this, some morphological characters that had been proposed to separate Angiopolybia from Agelaia such as stelocyttarous nest (with envelope) ( Ducke 1914), very weak or absent occipital carina ( Richards 1943), and flat metapleural basalar area ( Richards 1978; Andena et al. 2007) were not considered here because they are not exclusive to Angiopolybia , since they are present in few species of Agelaia . Moreover, the scutellum with line or depression ( Richards 1943; Andena et al. 2007) was not considered because they are not exclusive to Agelaia , since some Angiopolybia species present the line, despite it is inconspicuous. Richards (1943) commented that the characters determined by him, isolated, had no effect on separating the taxa.

Based on previous and this study, A. pallens and A. zischkai are closer, as are A. paraensis and A. obidensis . Angiopolybia pallens and A. zischkai are distinguished by rounded gena and propodeum with posterior submedian translucent mark inserted in a depression, whereas the other species have angled gena and submedian translucent mark of the propodeum not inserted in a depression. We documented other differences in the step 1 of the identification key for the genus (see below).

Geographic distribution.

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela.