Celonites Latreille, 1802

Fateryga, Alexander V. & Fadeev, Kirill I., 2023, The identity of Celonites montanus Mocsáry, 1906 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Masarinae) and its first record from Kazakhstan, Zootaxa 5319 (4), pp. 563-572 : 564-565

Genus Celonites Latreille, 1802

Celonites Latreille, 1802: 368 , genus.

Type species: Masaris apiformis Fabricius, 1793 [= Vespa abbreviata de Villers, 1789 ], by monotypy.

Paracelonites Kostylev, 1935: 108 , subgenus of Celonites Latreille, 1802 . Unavailable under Art. 13.3 of ICZN (1999), no type species designated.

Eucelonites Kostylev, 1935: 112 , subgenus of Celonites Latreille, 1802 . Unavailable under Art. 13.3 of ICZN (1999), no type species designated.

Eucelonites Richards, 1962: 215 , subgenus of Celonites Latreille, 1802 .

Type species: Celonites cyprius de Saussure, 1854 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Antennal club robust and roundly separated from the preceding flagellomeres; wings capable of longitudinally folding at rest and in death; propodeum laterally with horizontal lamella; lateral sides of terga acute; imagines able to roll up in same manner as cuckoo wasps ( Chrysididae ) ( Richards 1962; Gess & Gess 2010).

Number of species and distribution. The genus has a disjunct distribution with 20 species occurring in the semi-arid to arid areas in the southwest of the Afrotropical region ( Gess & Gess 2010, although they claimed to report 21 species, their list contained 20 valid species and one synonym) and 42 species in the Palaearctic and adjacent dry areas in the north of the Afrotropical region (according to the list of Carpenter 2001, combined with newly described or synonymized species by Gusenleitner 2002, 2007, 2012, 2018; Mauss 2013; Mauss et al. 2016, 2022a; Mauss & Prosi 2018; present contribution).