[Taxacom] Atlas of northeastern Nearctic Vespidae

[Matthias Buck]

I am pleased to announce that the "Identification Atlas of the Vespidae 
(Hymenoptera, Aculeata) of the northeastern Nearctic region" has 
recently been published in issue 5 of the Canadian Journal of Arthropod 
Identification (a peer reviewed, open access electronic journal 
published by the Biological Survey of Canada). The Atlas is available in 
both HTML and PDF format (which can be accessed through the journal's 
website: http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/ejournal.html).



This new identification tool covers the entire northeastern fauna (92 
spp.) south to Virginia and west to the Ontario-Manitoba border, 
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky. It includes 13 keys from 
the subfamily to the species level and is fully illustrated with over 
1000 high resolution colour photographs (diagnostic characters as well 
as standard aspects of every species incl. male/female head, 
dorsal/lateral habitus) including nearly 100 images of live specimens.



The Atlas provides the first published keys to certain speciose genera 
(e.g., Euodynerus, Stenodynerus) and sheds new light into problematic 
groups such as Polistes, Ancistrocerus and Euodynerus, leading to 
several taxonomic changes and the recognition of six new unnamed species 
(formal species descriptions to be published subsequently in print 
journals).



My apologies for any cross-postings.





Dr Matthias Buck, Curator
Insect Collection
Dept. of Environmental Biology
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
Canada, N1G 2W1
E-mail: mbuck at uoguelph.ca
www.uoguelph.ca/debu/