In the social insects, the degree to which castes are specialized behaviorally, physiologically and morphologically is a measure of the level of sociality achieved by a taxon. To study the diversity of such aspects, the swarm-founding polistine wasps are very helpful because the caste differences so far known can be arranged along a spectrum ranging from taxa in which queens and workers are externally similar, to others with quite distinct caste attributes. In the independent-founding polistines, queens tend to be among the larger individuals, but there is no definite evidence of morphological caste differences. Among the swarm-founding wasps, however, there is a continuum, from species in which there is no size or morphological differences between queens and workers to species in which queens show discontinuous size differences in relation to workers. Neotropical swarm founding epiponine wasps are characterized by high variation concerning colony size and morphological differentiation between castes. According to Richards (1978), there are at least three groups of morphological caste differences: 1-Conspicuous size and allometric differences present, with queens larger than workers; 2-Conspicuous dimorphism present, with queens smaller than workers; 3- Morphological differences slight or indistinct and ovary-developed workers can be found. We analyzed the morphological differences between queens and workers in twenty six different species of epiponines using eight measurements of head, thorax, abdomen and wing, associated with analyses of ovary development and insemination. Not just three types of caste differences but five types of syndromes were found in epiponines. These data were used as a data matrix (11 characters and 26 taxa) for a cladistic analysis. Patterns found in the consensus tree are quite similar to previously published phylogenies. The combination of caste difference data and other kinds of data (adult and immature morphology and nest architecture) reinforces the idea that at least five different types of social regulations can be determined and they will preliminary discussed.

Index terms: Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Epiponini, social insects, caste differences Treatment Delay of emergence