Phylogeny of the Neotropical genus Stenosigma Giordani Soika, 1978 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae) based on morphological data

Abstract

Stenosigma Giordani Soika, 1990 is a small Neotropical genus of potter wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae), with an interesting distributional pattern and a recent revision published. Unfortunately, the genus lacks a phylogenetic hypothesis with all species included — one major impediment for future biogeographic studies and hypotheses for evolutionary scenarios. Therefore, a phylogenetic treatment would help enlighten the history of this Neotropical wasp genus. We present the first phylogeny of Stenosigma based on cladistic methods using morphological data including all seven currently recognized species. We also give an overview of the distribution of the Stenosigma species and correlate the distribution pattern with the two major clades identified in the phylogeny.