“…The genus is the largest among social vespids with 245 species distributed in nine subgenera, being essentially a Neotropical taxon with a few species occurring north of Mexico (Carpenter & Wenzel, 1988;Cooper, 1996aCooper, , 1996bCooper, , 1997aCooper, , 1997bCooper, , 1998aCooper, , 1998bRaw, 1985Raw, , 1996Richards, 1941Silveira, 1998;. It originally included only those species with a very long petiole between meso and metasoma, and whose nests typically have a circular comb suspended by a long thin central peduncle (de Saussure, 1853;.…”