Ancistroceroides de Saussure, a Potter Wasp Genus New for the United States, with a New Key to the Genera of Eumeninae of America North of Mexico (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Abstract

The eumenine genus Ancistroceroides is reported from the southwestern United States; the genus is otherwise neotropical. Two new species are described: Ancistroceroides evansi Carpenter from Texas and Mexico, and A. levis Carpenter from Arizona. Ancistroceroides cordovae Carpenter is proposed as a replacement name for A. conspicuus (de Saussure) non Smith. New combinations are: A. acuminatus (Brethes), A. domingensis (Bequaert and Salt), A. erythraeus (Brethes), A. fabienii (Brethes), A. gribodoi (Zavattari), A. mearimensis (Zavattari), A. schulzi (Zavattari), A. sylveirae (de Saussure), and A. venustus (Brethes). A new key to the genera of Wasps of the vespid subfamily Eumeninae are commonly known as potter wasps, after the elegant pot-shaped mud nests made by species of the genus Eumenes Latreille, 1802, and related taxa. There have been 294 species recorded from America North of Mexico, plus another four unrecognized (as well as 79 additional subspecies, most of which should be synonymized; see Carpenter, 1988, 2003). As elsewhere in the world, the subfamily thus comprises most of the diversity in the Vespidae: 363 total species in five subfamilies have been recorded from this area. The key to North American eumenine genera by Carpenter and Cumming (1985) included 26 known at that time; subsequently Menke and Stange (1986) reported two invasive genera established in Florida. The present paper adds another genus. The genus Ancistroceroides de Saussure, 1855, has had a turbulent taxonomic history, even for eumenine genera. It was originally described as a division of the subgenus Ancistrocerus Wesmael, 1836, of the genus Odynerus Latreille in de Saussure's worldwide monograph of Vespidae, which was published in parts from 1852-1858 (see Griffin, 1939). At the time the name was proposed there were four included species. Bequaert (1925:61) subsequently designated as type species Odynerus cruentus de Saussure, 1855; the genus was otherwise ignored. When van der Vecht (1967) requested that de Saussure's infrasubgeneric eumenine names be declared available by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature from their date of publication (editions of the Code of Zoological Nomenclature prior to 1985 did not treat such names as available), he followed that type species designation, and Opinion 893 (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1970) accordingly did as well. However, van der Vecht later determined that O. cruentus is a species of the Australian genus Paralastor de Saussure, 1856, which has been treated as a genus since Perkins (1914), and currently includes 138 species. In order to avoid setting aside the name Paralastor in favor of Ancistroceroides, van der Vecht (1983) requested that the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature set aside Bequaert's designation, and designate as type species Odynerus alastoroides de Saussure,