Genus Polistes Latreille, 1802

Polistes Latreille, 1802: 363 . Type species: “ Polistes gallica, Fab. ” [= Vespa gallica Linnaeus], by subsequent designation of Latreille, 1810: 438.

Eupolistes Dalla Torre, 1904: 68, name for “Premiere division” of Polistes Latreille in de Saussure, 1853: 45. Type species: Vespa gallica Linnaeus, 1767, by subsequent designation of Richards 1973: 86.

Pseudopolistes Weyrauch, 1937: 266, 274. Unavailable; no type species designated.

Sulcopolistes Blüthgen, 1938a: 273, as subgenus of Polistes Latreille. Type species: Polistes semenowi Morawitz, 1889, by original designation.

Polistula Weyrauch, 1938: 273 . Unavailable; no type species designated.

Polistula Weyrauch, 1939: 148 . Type species: Polistes kohli Dalla Torre, 1904 [= Polistes biglumis Linnaeus, 1758], by original designation. Validation by type selection of Polistula Weyrauch, 1938 .

Pseudopolistes Weyrauch, 1939: 195 . Validation by type selection of Pseudopolistes Weyrauch, 1937 . Type species: Polistes sulcifer Zimmermann, by original designation.

Leptopolistes Blüthgen, 1943: 99, 121, as subgenus of Polistes Latreille. Type species: Polistes associus Kohl, by original designation.

The genus Polistes is one of the largest in the family Vespidae . There are more than 200 species and various subspecies all over the world (Carpenter 1996).