Revision and cladistic analysis of the eumenine wasp genus Pseudodynerus de Saussure (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae)

The eumenine genus Pseudodynerus is revised, and the phylogenetic relationships among its species are reconstructed based on adult morphology. The cladistic analyses of the 21 terminal species (15 ingroup and six outgroup species) and 48 characters, from external morphology and male genitalia, produced one cladogram under equal weights and two under implied weights. The monophyly of Pseudodynerus was corroborated in all three hypotheses, although the internal relationships varied depending on the weighting scheme. Two major clades were recovered under both equal and implied weights, one containing mostly Central and North American species and the other only South American species. The main difference between the hypotheses involves the placement of P. luctuosus , which comes out either as sister to a clade formed by P. hallinani  + ( P. maxillaris  +  P. quadrisectus  +  P. crypticus ) or as sister to a clade comprising the remaining species. Fifteen species of Pseudodynerus are recognized, of which four are described as new: P. crypticus from Costa Rica, P. carpenteri from French Guiana and Suriname, P. obesus from Rondônia, Brazil, and P. singularis from Espírito Santo, Brazil. One new synonymy is proposed: Odynerus ( Odynerus ) aztecus de Saussure, 1857 =  Pseudodynerus quadrisectus (Say, 1837) syn.n. Names treated as varieties by Bequaert (1941) are not recognized at any level herein, as follows: Monobia mina‐palumboi Gribodo, 1891, stat.rev. ; Odynerus ( Leionotus ) beelzebub Zavattari, 1912, stat.rev. ; Stenodynerus anisitsii garleppi Schrottky, 1911, stat.rev. ; and Stenodynerus mondaiensis Bertoni, 1918, stat.rev. Lectotypes are designated for Odynerus bellone Lepeletier, 1841, Odynerus ( Odynerus ) aztecus de Saussure, 1857 and Odynerus ( Stenodynerus ) migonei Bertoni, 1926.