THE PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEM OF THE GAYELLINI 
(HYMENOPTERA: VESPIDAE; MASARINAE)* 
By James M. Carpenter 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, MA 02138 
Introduction 
The Gayellini is one of the two tribes of Masarinae (Carpenter, 
1981). Endemic to the Neotropics, the majority of the species are 
Patagonian, but one ranges as far north as Mexico. With ten de- 
scribed species, the group is far less speciose than its sister-tribe 
Masarini, which has over 200 described species ( cf Richards, 1962), 
and most species are rarely collected. These wasps have a very dis- 
tinctive appearance among Vespidae (Fig. 1), and their taxonomic 
history has been more turbulent than any other higher vespid taxon. 
Although the phylogenetic placement of the group as a whole has 
now evidently been settled (Carpenter, 1981), no study has been 
made of the species. The current generic classification is fragmented, 
and there have been no keys to all of the taxa. In this paper, I 
investigate the phylogenetic relationships of the species, and present 
a revised generic classification along with keys to all taxa. 
Taxonomic History 
Saussure (1852-58) placed Gayella in the Section “Anomalop- 
teres” of the “Eumeniens” because the forewing recurrent veins 
(m-cui_ 2 ) are received in separate cells (Fig. 6), as in the other 
genera placed in this section ( Raphiglossa , and Stenoglossa = Psili- 
glossa ). In other vespids he studied both veins were received by the 
second submarginal cell. Ashmead (1902a) described the subfamily 
Raphiglossinae (in his Eumenidae) for this group, but by that time 
other genera had been described which had the diagnostic character 
of the recurrent veins. These were Euparagia and Paramasaris, both 
considered probable masarines by their authors (Cresson, 1879, and 
Cameron, 1901, respectively). Ashmead (1902b) proposed the tribe 
Euparagiini in his Masaridae for these two genera. So the recurrent 
* Manuscript received by the editor September 28, 1988 
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