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Genus Mischocyttarus - Long-waisted Paper Wasps

ٝ - Mischocyttarus flavitarsis Mischocyttarus nest - Mischocyttarus mexicanus Mischocyttarus mexicanus cubicola - Mischocyttarus mexicanus Wasp - Mischocyttarus mexicanus Wasp on Soldierwood - Mischocyttarus mexicanus Paper Wasp - Mischocyttarus mexicanus Male, Mischocyttarus navajo? - Mischocyttarus navajo - male Unknown 5 - United World College - Mischocyttarus flavitarsis
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
Superfamily Vespoidea
Family Vespidae
Subfamily Polistinae (Paper Wasps)
Genus Mischocyttarus (Long-waisted Paper Wasps)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
US records of M. phthisicus refer to M. mexicanus cubicola(1)
Explanation of Names
Mischocyttarus Saussure 1853
from the Greek μίσχος 'stalk' + κύτταρος 'cell of a honeycomb' => 'stalked honeycomb' (the nest Saussure described was suspended from a slender stalk)
Numbers
3 spp. in our area, all in the subgenus Phi; the largest genus of social wasps, with nearly 250 described spp.(2)
Identification
meso- & metatarsomeres 3 & 4 strongly asymmetrical. First gastric segment narrowed into an elongate petiole.
Range
New World, primarily neotropical(2)
Works Cited
1.Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.
2.Vespidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of Puerto Rico, West Indies
Carpenter J.M., Genaro J.A. 2011. Insecta Mundi 0202: 1-35.