Polistes pacificus
species of insect
Polistes pacificus is a Neotropical species of social paper wasp belonging to the subfamily Polistinae and the family Vespidae. P. pacificus can be found distributed throughout most of Central and South America and parts of southern North America. First discovered by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804, P. pacificus is much darker in color than some other more recognizable Polistes wasps, and is one of the insects commonly eaten by several indigenous groups in Venezuela and Colombia.
Taxonomy and phylogenetics
Phylogenetic tree
P. pacificus is part of a monophyletic clade that makes up the membership of Richards’ (1973, 1978) subgenera Epicnemius. P. pacificus is most closely related to its sister species, P. cinerascens. Although previous studies found Epicnemius to be paraphyletic, the most recent and complete study done by Picket et al. reveals that it is likely monophyletic. The species included in this clade are P. cinerascens, P. pacificus, P. geminatus geminatus, P. occipitalis, P. testaceicolor.
Synonyms
P. pacificus was originally discovered in 1804 by the famous Danish entomologist, Johan Christian Fabricius (1745–1808). However, because P. pacificus has wide color variation depending on its geographic region, over time it has been mistaken for several new species and given new names.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of insect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14423456. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1804, 1973, 1978 and 1745.
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This entry incorporates text from “Polistes pacificus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.