Catalogue of the Australian Eumeninae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)
Author
Carpenter, James M.
Author
Brown, Graham R.
0000-0002-4101-3823
thynnini@outlook.com
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-01-26
4919
1
1
68
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4919.1.1
journal article
8654
10.11646/zootaxa.4919.1.1
c95b424f-11b6-4d97-a30f-b6b36dd1b8ed
1175-5326
4473370
8537A0E1-5F78-47B3-916B-D4B988DC86E1
Phimenes
and
Delta
Giordani Soika (1972: 110)
treated
Phi
de Saussure 1855
(Giordani Soika gave 1856 as the date), as the name for a genus consisting of some species he had previously placed in the genus
Delta
de Saussure 1855
(e. g.
Giordani Soika 1961b
).
Cardale (1985)
and
Brown (2009)
did not mention
Phi
.
Carpenter (1986: 68)
pointed out that
Phi
de Saussure 1855
, was a junior homonym of
Phi
de Saussure 1854
(now a subgenus of the polistine genus
Mischocyttarus
de Saussure 1853
), and treated it as a synonym of
Delta
. This was overlooked by several later authors (
Giordani Soika 1987: 150
;
Giordani Soika & Kojima 1988: 181
;
Gusenleitner 1988: 184
), who used the unavailable name.
Giordani Soika (1992)
proposed a replacement name,
Phimenes
.
Carpenter (2008)
did not accept
Phimenes
as a genus separate from
Delta
, but other authors have (e. g. Borsato 1994 [1993], 1994, 2003;
Nugroho
et al.
2012
[2011];
Kumar 2013
;
Nguyen
et al.
2016
). In the cladistic analysis by
Hermes
et al.
(2014
, see their fig. 83)
Delta
came out as more closely related to
Katamenes
Meade-Waldo 1910
than to
Phimenes
. Synonymy of
Phimenes
with
Delta
therefore requires consideration of the status of
Katamenes
, which we are not prepared to undertake at this time.
Phimenes
is accordingly retained as a genus.