Topic
Alphamenes
About: Alphamenes is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2 publications have been published within this topic receiving 3 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: This cladistic results recovered Alphamenes as a monophyletic group supported by male genital features, hence the first to strongly test for group monophyly in potter wasp systematics.
Abstract: Advances in potter wasp systematics have been achieved recently, with classificatory changes resulting from analyses based upon large scale molecular datasets. For the Neotropics, recent hypotheses point to the occurrence of an exclusive clade recognized within the tribe Eumenini. In this group, several contributions regarding taxonomy and systematics have been proposed in the last five years, including the genus Alphamenes. This taxon contains seven described species whose distribution is exclusively Neotropical. Females are morphologically homogeneous, and characters related to copulatory organs are useful in male diagnosis. This contribution forms the first phylogenetic approach to include all species of Alphamenes, hence the first to strongly test for group monophyly. Our cladistic results recovered Alphamenes as a monophyletic group supported by male genital features. Relationships among included species also rely upon genitalic characters, highlighting the importance of these attributes for eumenine systematics. Recent phylogenetic investigations applied to the Neotropical fauna of potter wasps represent desirable advancements towards a natural classification for the group.
1 citations
TL;DR: The present study enhances knowledge on Neotropical potter wasp systematics, providing one further step into a natural classification for a group whose taxonomy has suffered from irrational splitting of genera in the past century.
Abstract: The generic classification of Neotropical Eumeninae has been termed chaotic, and synonymisation of taxa has become constant in recent years. Recognition of some generic limits are problematic due to features showing a great deal of variation, such as the length of the first metasomal tergum. This applies to the Neotropical Alphamenes van der Vecht, Minixi Giordani Soika and Pachyminixi Giordani Soika. Minixi has already been demonstrated to be paraphyletic in regards to Pachyminixi. These taxa are the focus of the present study, which used morphological data to infer the phylogenetic relationships among their constituent species. A total of 14 taxa and 34 characters were subjected to cladistic analysis under implied weighting. A single most-parsimonious cladogram was obtained, recovering Pachyminixi as monophyletic. Minixi, however, was paraphyletic relative to Pachyminixi and they are thus synonymised, with the former name having priority. A new species from Mexico, Minixi mariachii, sp. nov., is described. Minixi joergenseni bicingulatus (Zavattari, 1912) is synonymised under M. joergenseni (Schrottky, 1909), comb. nov. Additional new combinations are: Minixi arechavaletae (Brethes, 1903), comb. nov., M. bifasciatum (von Schulthess, 1904), comb. nov., M. brethesi (Bertoni, 1927), comb. nov., M. sumichrasti (de Saussure, 1875), comb. nov., and M. uruguyense (de Saussure, 1855), comb. nov. Illustrations and a new key to species of Minixi are provided. The present study enhances our knowledge on Neotropical potter wasp systematics, providing one further step into a natural classification for a group whose taxonomy has suffered from irrational splitting of genera in the past century.
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Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2016 | 1 |