Vespa carnifex Fabricius, 1775:365,Brasilia (Mus. Banks); Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441, Holotype ♀, examined (BMNH). - As Polistes carnifex: - Fabricius, 1775Fabricius, J.C. 1775. Systema Entomologiae sistens Insectorum classes, ordines, genera, species, adjectis synonymis, locis, descriptionibus, observationibus. Korte, Flensburgi et Lipsiae. 28+832 pp. (distribution); Guérin-Méneville, 1856Guérin-Méneville, M.F.E. 1856. Historia Fisica, Politica y Natural de la Isla de Cuba. Secunda Parte. Historia Natural. Tomo VII. Crustaceos, Aragnides é Insectos. Arthus Bertrand, Paris. 1-371. (distribution); Smith, 1857Smith, F. 1857. Catalogue of Hymenopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. Part V. Vespidae. London. 147 pp. (distribution); Guérin-Méneville, 1857Guérin-Méneville, M.F.E. 1857. Animaux Articulés. Arthus Bertrand, Paris. 1-868. (distribution); Cresson, 1865Cresson, E.T. 1865. On the Hymenoptera of Cuba. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia 4:200 pp. (distribution); Dalla Torre, 1894Dalla Torre, C.G. 1894. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus, IX. Vespidae (Diploptera). Guilelmi Engelmann, 181. (distribution); Ashmead, 1900Ashmead, W.H. 1900. Report upon the aculeate Hymenoptera of the islands of St. Vincent and Grenada, with additions to the parasitic Hymenoptera and a list of the described Hymenoptera of the West Indies. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London pt. II:207-367. (distribution); Viereck, 1902Viereck, H.L. 1902. Notes on Vespoidea. Entomological News 13 (9):273-274. (distribution); Cameron, 1906Cameron, P. 1906. On some Vespidae from Belize. Invertebrata Pacifica 1:150-153. (distribution); Cameron, 1912Cameron, P. 1912. The Hymenoptera of the Georgetown Museum. Part III. Timehri 3rd ser. (2):207-231. (distribution); Rohwer & Holland, 1917Rohwer, S.A. & W.J. Holland 1917. List of the Hymenoptera collected on the Isle of Pines by G. A. Link, Sr., 1912-1913, and contained in the Carnegie Museum. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 11:291-296. (distribution); Cockerell, 1949Cockerell, T.D.A. 1949. Bees from Central America, principally Honduras. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 98 (No. 3233):429-490. (distribution); Starr, 1987Starr, C.K. 1987. Claves para la identificacion de las avispas sociales del Parque Nacional Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Sphecos 15:13-20. (distribution); Carpenter & Vecht, 1991Carpenter, J.M. & J. van der Vecht 1991. A study of the Vespidae described by William J. Fox (Insecta: Hymenoptera), with assessment of taxonomic implications. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 60 (3):211-241. (distribution); West-Eberhard et al., 1995West-Eberhard, M.J., J.M. Carpenter & P.E. Hanson 1995. The vespid wasps (Vespidae). In: Hanson, P.E. & I.D. Gauld (Ed.). The Hymenoptera of Costa Rica. 561-587. (distribution); Starr & Hook, 2003Starr, C.K. & Hook, A.W. 2003. The aculeate Hymenoptera of Trinidad, West Indies. Occasional Papers o the Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies 12:1-31. (distribution); Ruíz-Cancino et al., 2010Ruíz-Cancino, E., D.R. Kasparyan, J.M. Coronado-Blanco, S.N. Myartseva, V.A. Trjapitzin, S.G. Hernández Aguilar & J. García Jiménez 2010. Himenópteros de la Reserva “El Cielo”, Tamaulipas, México. Dugesiana 17 (1):53-71. (distribution); Somavilla et al., 2018Somavilla, A., M.L. Oliveira, S.R. Andena & J.M. Carpenter 2018. An illustrated atlas for male genitalia of the New World Polistes Latreille, 1802 (Vespidae: Polistinae). Zootaxa 4504 (3):301-344. (distribution). - As Polistes carnifex carnifex: - Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567. (distribution); Krombein et al., 1979Krombein, K.V., P.D. Hurd, D.R. Smith & B.D. Burks 1979. Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Volume 2. Apocrita (Aculeata). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1199-2209. (distribution); Maes, 1999 1999. Catalogo de los insectos y artropodos terrestres de Nicaragua. Volumen III. León, Nicaragua. 1170-1898. (distribution); Ruíz-Cancino et al., 2005Ruíz-Cancino, E., J.M. Coronado-Blanco & J.V. Horta Vega 2005. Conocimiento actual de las avispas depredadoras (Hymenoptera) en Tamaulipas, México. In: Lozano, L. B., A.C. Sandoval, J.V.H. Vega & J.G. Jiménez (Ed.). Biodiversidad tamaulipeca: vol. 1. 164-170. (distribution); Rasmussen & Asenjo, 2009Rasmussen, C. & A. Asenjo 2009. A checklist to the wasps of Peru (Hymenoptera, Aculeata). ZooKeys 15:1-78. (distribution); Carpenter et al., 2012Carpenter, J.M., B.R. Garcete-Barrett & Y.J.A.F. López 2012. Las Vespidae (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea) de Guatemala. In: Cano, E.B. & J.C. Schuster (Ed.). Biodiversidad de Guatemala. Volumen 2. 269-279. (distribution); Vanoye-Eligio et al., 2014Vanoye-Eligio, M., V. Meléndez-Ramírez, R. Ayala, J. Navarro & H. Delfin-González 2014. Predatory Wasps (Hymenoptera) of the Yucatan Peninsula. Southwestern Entomoloigst 39 (3):635-646. (distribution); Vanoye-Eligio et al., 2015Vanoye-Eligio, M., V. Meléndez-Ramírez, R. Ayala, J. Navarro-Alberto & H. Delfín-González 2015. Avispas depredadoras de áreas naturales protegidas del estado de Yucatán, México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 86:989-997. (distribution); Márquez-Rodríguez, 2017Márquez-Rodríguez, J. 2017. Primer registro de Polistes (Onerarius) carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775) (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) en Quintana Roo (México). Anales de Biología 39:199-202. (distribution); Valverde et al., 2019Valverde, P., P. Hanson & J. Carpenter 2019. Keys to the Costa Rican species of paper wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae). Revista de Biología Tropical (International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation) 67 (2):174-199. (distribution).
Polistes onerata Lepeletier, 1836:524, ♂.Patrie inconnue (Musée de M. Serville); Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441, Type ♂ (probably MIZSU, Turin). - Dalla Torre, 1894Dalla Torre, C.G. 1894. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus, IX. Vespidae (Diploptera). Guilelmi Engelmann, 181.:126 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Krombein et al., 1979Krombein, K.V., P.D. Hurd, D.R. Smith & B.D. Burks 1979. Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Volume 2. Apocrita (Aculeata). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1199-2209.:1512 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Maes, 1999 1999. Catalogo de los insectos y artropodos terrestres de Nicaragua. Volumen III. León, Nicaragua. 1170-1898.:1754 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)).
Polistes válida Say, 1837:389, ♀. ♀, Mexico; Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441, Types ♂♀ (depository unknown). - Dalla Torre, 1894Dalla Torre, C.G. 1894. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus, IX. Vespidae (Diploptera). Guilelmi Engelmann, 181.:126 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Krombein et al., 1979Krombein, K.V., P.D. Hurd, D.R. Smith & B.D. Burks 1979. Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Volume 2. Apocrita (Aculeata). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1199-2209.:1512 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Maes, 1999 1999. Catalogo de los insectos y artropodos terrestres de Nicaragua. Volumen III. León, Nicaragua. 1170-1898.:1754 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)).
Polistes transverso-strigata Spinola, 1851:78, ♂. Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441, Type ♀ (MIZSU, Turin, probably). - Krombein et al., 1979Krombein, K.V., P.D. Hurd, D.R. Smith & B.D. Burks 1979. Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Volume 2. Apocrita (Aculeata). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1199-2209.:1512 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)); Maes, 1999 1999. Catalogo de los insectos y artropodos terrestres de Nicaragua. Volumen III. León, Nicaragua. 1170-1898.:1754 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)). - As Polistes transversesignata: - Dalla Torre, 1894Dalla Torre, C.G. 1894. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus, IX. Vespidae (Diploptera). Guilelmi Engelmann, 181.:126 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)). - As Polistes transversostrigata: - Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:441 ( listed as synonym of Polistes carnifex (Fabricius, 1775)).