The genus Euodynerus Dalla Torre in Europe and the Maghreb (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae) Author Selis, Marco Via dei Tarquini, 22 - 01100 Viterbo, Italy Author Fateryga, Alexander V. T. I. Vyazemsky Karadag Scientific Station-Nature Reserve of RAS-Branch of A. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS, Nauki Str. 24, Kurortnoye, 298188 Feodosiya, Russia Author Cilia, Giovanni CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CREA-AA), Via di Corticella 133, 40128, Bologna, Italy text Zootaxa 2024 2024-11-08 5537 2 151 194 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5537.2.1 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.5537.2.1 1175-5326 14239439 8A7AF43F-0E83-48A0-950E-0716CDC753A6 Euodynerus ( Pareuodynerus ) notatus ( Jurine, 1807 ) ( Figs 12A–G ; 14L ; 15L, R ; 16A ) Vespa notate Jurine, 1807: 170 , pl. 9, fig. 15, ♀ — [? Geneva ] (MHNG). Odynerus nigripes Herrich-Schaeffer, 1839: 11 (key), 17, ♂ , ♀ , pl. 21 (female), 22 (female var.) — locality not stated [probably Germany ] ( type destroyed). ? Odynerus maculatus Lepeletier, 1841: 626 , ♀ , ♂ — “ Environs de Paris ” (coll. Lepeletier ;? destroyed). Odynerus pubescens Thomson, 1870: 85 , ♀ , ♂ (in subgenus Lionotus ) — Sweden (MZLU). Odynerus ungularis Thomson, 1870: 85 , ♀ , ♂ (in subgenus Lionotus ) — Sweden : “Norrland” (MZLU). Odynerus clypealis Thomson, 1870: 85 , ♂ (in subgenus Lionotus ) — Sweden : “ Skåne ” (MZLU). ? Odynerus pubescens var. cupreus von Schulthess, 1897: 69 , sex not indicated (probably based on discolored specimen) (? coll. von Schulthess, ZMUZ). Euodynerus notatus var. pernotata Blüthgen, 1938: 279 , ♂ (in subgenus Pareuodynerus ) — “Naumburg (Saale)” (ZMB [examined]). Distribution. Nearly trans-Palaearctic species but most of the records east of the Baikal Lake should be verified due to the confusion made in the past with E. nipanicus (von Schulthess) ( Fateryga et al. 2020 ; present data). Notes. Giordani Soika (1986) described the subspecies E. notatus cyrenaicus from Libya , differentiating it by the reduced and red-orange pattern. The taxonomy of this subspecies is treated below under E. rubrosignatus . Euodynerus notatus has often been confused with E. nipanicus , a polytypic species occurring in the Eastern Palaearctic and Oriental regions, with both E. nipanicus s. str. and its current subspecies sometimes described as or downgraded to subspecies of E. notatus (e.g. Giordani Soika 1973 ; Yamane & Tano 1987 ; Gusenleitner 1988 ). The first to provide diagnostic characters for the two species was Blüthgen (1942) , then Giordani Soika (1986) and Yamane (1990) followed Blüthgen’s view providing further diagnostic characters, with most of the subsequent authors following this taxonomy (e.g. Gusenleitner 1997 ; Kim 2012 ; Nguyen et al. 2014 ; Ma et al. 2017 ; Tan et al. 2018 ). DNA barcoding of both E. notatus and E. nipanicus (including most of its subspecies) further supports considering the two taxa as different species ( Fig. 10 ), with the average genetic distances between E. notatus and four subspecies of nipanicus ( nipanicus s. str. , nipanicus flavicornis Yamane, nipanicus ryukyuensis Tano, nipanicus tonkinensis Giordani Soika) resulting to be 10.71–21.49%, and confirming the characters provided by past authors ( Blüthgen 1942 ; Giordani Soika 1986 ; Yamane 1990 ) as diagnostic. Within Euodynerus nipanicus , large genetic distances were found between the four subspecies examined, with average distances ranging from 6.98% ( nipanicus s. str. / n. flavicornis ) to 23.65% ( n. tonkinensis / n. ryukyuensis ). These high genetic distances, however, are not supported by evident morphological differences between the four subspecies, which differ only in the extension of the yellow pattern, which tends to become richer towards the south, and are probably attributable to the geographical isolation of the various populations (e.g. flavicornis and ryukyuensis in the Ryûkyû Islands), given that they also form a clade supported by a bootstrap value of 100. These considerations would support the synonymy of the three subspecies tonkinensis , flavicornis and ryukyuensis under the nominotypical one. However, this action should be undertaken in the context of a broader sampling of Asian species of the subgenus Pareuodynerus , especially including taxa recently described and morphologically similar to E. nipanicus (see Ma et al. 2017 ), so for the moment we refrain from proposing such taxonomic actions.