Polistes bistriata Fabricius, 1804:281, sex not indicated.America meridionali (Mus. Dom. Lund, leg. Smidt); Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:61, Types (UZM, Copenhagen). - As Polybia bistriata: - Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567. (distribution); Carpenter & Ross, 1984Carpenter, J.M. & K.G. Ross 1984. Colony composition in four species of Polistinae from Suriname, with a description of the larva of Brachygastra scutellaris (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Psyche 91:237-250. (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); Rasmussen & Asenjo, 2009Rasmussen, C. & A. Asenjo 2009. A checklist to the wasps of Peru (Hymenoptera, Aculeata). ZooKeys 15:1-78. (distribution); Kumar et al., 2009Kumar, J.T. Longino, R.K. Colwell & S. O'Donnell 2009. Elevational patterns of diversity and abundance of eusocial paper wasps (Vespidae) in Costa Rica. Biotropica 41 (3):338-346. (distribution); Santos et al., 2015Santos, E.F. dos, Y.C Grandinete & F.B. Noll 2015. Additions to the checklist of Scoliidae, Sphecidae, Pompilidae and Vespidae of Peru, with notes on the endemic status of some species (Hymenoptera, Aculeata). ZooKeys 519:33-48. (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).
Polybia oecodoma Saussure, 1854:195, Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:61, Lectotype ♀, examined (MNHN, Paris). - Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:61 ( listed as synonym of Polybia bistriata (Fabricius, 1804)).
Polybia brunneiceps Cameron, 1912:213, ♀. ♀, British Guiana (Georgetown Museum); Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:61, Holotype ♀, examined (BMNH). - Richards, 1978Richards, O.W. 1978. The social wasps of the Americas excluding the Vespinae. British Museum (Natural History), London. 1-567.:61 ( listed as synonym of Polybia bistriata (Fabricius, 1804)). - As Polybia occidentalis brunneiceps: - Meade-Waldo & Morley, 1914Meade-Waldo, G. & C. Morley 1914. Notes and synonymy of Hymenoptera in the collection of the British Museum. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History ser. 8: v. 14:402-410. (distribution).