Species of Polistes often are differentiated based on very minute details. For instance, the US species of P. carolina and P. rubiginosus require microscopy to separate entirely-red specimens. Another pair of nearly cryptic species exists from the southern border of the US through South America: P. carnifex and P. major major. I've attempted to gather information about these two species in the scientific literature
• Females: enlarged head, long oculo-malar space (space between eyes and mandibles <1/3 eye height), clypeus generally not touching eyes over much distance, size 17-22 mm (tentative: by inspection, antennae of females appear to be mostly orange as opposed to just contrasting tips)
• Males: pentagonal clypeus
• Distribution: US (Texas southern tip?); Mexico; Honduras; Costa Rica, Colombia; Venezuela; Guyanas; Peru, Brazil, Paraguay; Argentina
• Reference image: http://v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=96373
• Darker form: https://bugguide.net/node/view/716676
• Females: less enlarged head, short oculo-malar space (>1/3 eye height), clypeus noticeably touching eyes, propodeum coarsely ridged, size 13-17 mm (tentative: by inspection, antennae of females have orange only at the tips)
• Males: more quadrilateral (subquadrate) clypeus, clypeus not touching eyes, size 16-17 mm
• Distribution: US (Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Texas southern tip), Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Hispaniola Island
• Reference image: https://bugguide.net/node/view/498521
2017. Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775) in GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-01-23.
2017. Polistes major major in GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-01-23.
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