Synoeca, de Saussure, 1852

Cely, Christian C. & Sarmiento, Carlos E., 2011, What about intraspecific variation? Reassessment of taxonomic and phylogenetic characters in the genus Synoeca de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae), Zootaxa 2899 (1), pp. 43-59 : 56

Key to species of the genus Synoeca

There are several coincidences between the key provided here and these developed by Richards (1978), García & Gaiani (1994), and Andena et al. (2009) but major differences deal with the self-evident nature of the characters and the exclusive distribution of the character states within each species or species groups. On the other hand, even though body color could be altered by several aspects such as preservation or population differences, we found these characters highly reliable and thus, in a similar way to García & Gaiani (1994) and Andena et al. (2009), we used these extensively.

1 Infuscate wings; clypeus less than 6.5 × as long as malar space................................................ 2

- Hyaline wings; clypeus at least 6.5 × and more as long as malar space.......................................... 4

2 Clypeus entirely black............................................................... S. surinama (Linnaeus)

- Clypeus with testaceous or reddish areas................................................................... 3

3 Clypeus having brown or black anteromedial area....................................... S. septentrionalis Richards

- Clypeus having reddish or yellow anteromedial area, black coloration restricted only to dorsolateral edges................................................................................................... S. cyanea (Fabricius)

4 Body entirely yellowish.............................................................. S. virginea (Fabricius)

- Body metallic blue greenish overtones................................................. S. chalibea de Saussure