Parapolybia indica

Saito-Morooka, Fuki, Nguyen, Lien T. P. & Kojima, Jun-Ichi, 2015, Review of the paper wasps of the Parapolybia indica species-group (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Polistinae) in eastern parts of Asia, Zootaxa 3947 (2), pp. 215-235 : 217-220

Parapolybia indica (de Saussure, 1854)

( Figs 5 –18, 83, 85)

Polybia indica de Saussure 1854: 207, pl. 26, fig. 3, ♀, holotype “La Chine ” [MNHN]. Stelopolybia indica : du Buysson 1913: 298.

Parapolybia indica : von Schulthess 1913: 153 (key), 154, pl. 11 fig. 1, pl. 11B fig. 7 (distribution). Parapolybia indica indica : van der Vecht 1966: 26 (key), 27, fig. 11a–b (distribution) [part, as aberrant color form].

Diagnosis. This species can be distinguished from other species of the P. i n di ca species-group by the combination of the following characters: body ground color yellow, with abundant brown and dark brown markings; female clypesus without dark spots; female paired longitudinal yellow bands on mesoscutum and paired yellow spots on T2 absent or obscure; wings covered with short black setae; female gena not strongly swollen, in lateral view narrower than eye; antenna and legs not prominantly elongated; T2 moderately concave sublaterally; male genital volsella apically produced.

Material examined. HOLOTYPE of Polybia indica de Saussure, ♀, "La Chine " [ MNHN]: Other material. CHINA: Guangdong: 1 ♀ ( BPBM), Lo-fou Shan, [23°40'N, 114°36'E], 100–1000 ft., 1906, F.M.; Hong Kong: 23 ♀ ( BPBM), N.T.Taipokau et al., [3 ♀, 6, 30–31.vi.1964; 7 ♀, 2–6, 3–4, 10–14, 17, 27.vii.1964; 1 ♀, 30.vi.1965; 9 ♀, 2, 7, 20, 21, 27.vii.1965; 2 ♀, 13, 17.viii.1965; 1 ♀, 15.ix.1965]. VIETNAM: Cao Bang: 47 ♀ 6 ♂ ( IUNH, IEBR), Thanh Cong, Nguyen Binh, [21 ♀ 2 ♂, 22°34'N, 105°53'E, 1000 m, 9.viii.2012, Nest# VN-NE2012-Pp-12 & 13, S.D. Tran, J. Kojima & H. Nugroho; 26 ♀ 4 ♂, 22°34'14''N, 105°52'41''E, 1920 m, 10.viii.2012, Nest# VN- NE2012-Pp-09, IED-c ( IEBR Insect Ecology Department collectors)]; Vinh Phuc: 2 ♀ 7 ♂ ( IUNH), Tam Dao, 21°27.5'N, 105°38'E, 800 m, 31.viii.2006, F. Saito & J. Kojima; 11 ♀ 6 ♂ ( IEBR), Tam Dao, D.T. Tran [4 ♂, 20.ix.2011; 11 ♀ 2 ♂, 900–1200 m, 30.vii–3.viii.2012]. LAOS: 1 ♀ ( BPBM), Phon Tiou, Khammouane, 11.vi.1965, N. Wilson.

FIGURES 12–18. Parapolybia indica , ♂. 12. Head, frontal view. 13. Ocelli, dorsal view. 14. F9–F 11. 15, 16. T1 (15. Dorsal view, 16. Lateral view). 17. Volsella and digitus. 18. Aedeagus. Scale 1 mm.

Redescription (characters for the holotype female are given in blackets). FEMALE. Body length 13.5–16.5 [14.0] mm; fore wing length 13.0–16.0 [13.0] mm. Head in frontal view 1.1 × as wide as high ( Fig. 7 ). Ocelli close to each other ( Fig. 8 ); distance between anterior and posterior ocelli less than half of Od; POD less than half of Od; anterior ocellus diameter 0.3 mm, slightly larger than that of posterior ocellus (about 0.25 mm); OOD 1.8 × as large as Od. Gena narrower than eye in lateral view ( Fig. 9 ). Eyes sparsely with short fine setae. Vertex and frons densely with fine setae. Clypeus with sparse setae, anterior margin with dense short setae. Pronotum laterally with shallow furrows just behind fovea. Scutum, scutellum and metanotum densely setose. Scutellum and metanotum convex. Propodeum with dense setae, dorsolaterally distinctly striate. T1 more or less slender, 3.2–4.6 [3.9] mm long ( Fig. 10 ), posteriorly weakly swollen dorsally in lateral view ( Fig. 11 ), 3.1 × longer than maximum height, 2.7 × as long as its own maximum width. T2 moderately concave sublaterally.

Color. Ground color yellow, with following parts dark brown and brown; dark brown: scape dorsally and F1– F6, inner margin of mandible, anterior margin of clypeus, posteromedian and dorsolateral narrow bands of propodeum, median furrow of mesopleuron, posterior margin of metasomal segments, and all tarsi; brown: paired ill-defined small spots on clypeus (sometimes absent), frons, dorsolateral lines of pronotum, mesoscutum except for paired yellow longitudinal lines (often ambiguous), scutellum, metasomal segments. Wings brown, semihyaline.

MALE. Body length 13.0– 14.5 mm; fore wing length 12.5–14.0 mm. Head in frontal view 0.9 × as wide as high (Fig. 12). Ocelli close to each other (Fig. 13); distance between anterior and posterior ocelli less than half of Od; POD less than half of Od; anterior ocellus 0.24–0.32 mm in diameter, larger than posterior ocellus (0.23–0.28 mm in Od); OOD about equal to Od. Antenna 10.0 mm long; F11 1.6 × as long as F10 (0.9–1.0 mm long, Fig. 14). Pronotum dorsolaterally slightly ridged, laterally with shallow furrows. Propodeum drosolaterally striate. T1 (3.6– 4.0 mm long, Figs 15–16) less swollen posterodorsally than in female, 3.6 × longer than the maximum height, 3.2 × as long as its own maximum width. Parameral spine with hairy setae (Fig. 17). Volsella produced apically (Fig. 17). Digitus ventroapically slightly projected. Proximal margin of aedeagus produced (Fig. 18).

Color. As in female, but mesoscutum entirely brown.

Distribution. China (Guangdong, Hong Kong), Vietnam (North Vietnam), Laos.

Remarks. Van der Vecht (1966) examined the de Saussure’s holotype of Polybia indica [= Parapolybia indica ], and stated that it “agrees better with De Saussure’s figure than with his description. … The general appearance of the body suggests that the aberrant coloration is very probably due to poor preservation. … I have therefore treated the richly maculated common Chinese form as “typical”, even though it does not agree well with the original description.” This interpretation has been followed by most researchers, including Yamane et al. (1995), who synonymized Parapolybia takasagona Sonan 1944 under P. indica .

As van der Vecht (1966) pointed out, the holotype specimen of Polybia indica agrees better with de Saussure’s (1854) figure (pl. 26, fig. 3) than with his text description, which does not refer to the yellow markings on the mesosoma. However, it is not rare that not only de Saussure (1853–1858) but also even modern works seldom refer to details of all the color markings in text descriptions, and thus this cannot be a reason to consider that the holotype of P. indica had “aberrant colorations due to poor preservation” and the richly yellow-marked Chinese form was treated as “typical”. In fact, specimens of yellow-ground-colored Parapolybia species sometimes become “blackish” brown or greenish-brown or even blackish brown possibly due to a short period from the emergence to the time being killed ( Figs 3–4 ), but such the discoloration can be recognized with careful observation. Furthermore, we collected a colony of which all the resident female wasps had the live coloration agreeing with the holotype of P. indica in the locality where we also collected the other colonies with all the resident females being richly yellow-marked. These findings strongly suggest that the holotype of P. i nd i ca deserves its original coloration and richly-yellow-marked Parapolybia wasps belong to species different from P. indica (de Saussure, 1854) that are described in this paper as new to science.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. Parapolybia varia, P. c roc e a sp. nov. and holotype of P. indica (de Saussure, 1854). 1, 2. Head, lateral view, ♀. 1. P. crocea sp. nov. 2. P. v ar i a. 3, 4. Dried specimens of P. crocea sp. nov. from the same colony. 3. Body color in live more or less well preserved. 4. Discolored while drying. 5, 6. Holotype of P. indica. 5. Dorsal view, metasomal segments 2 – 6 glued upside down. 6. Labels of holotype.

FIGURES 7 – 11. Parapolybia indica, holotype ♀. 7, 9. Head. 7. Frontal view. 9. Lateral view. 8. Ocelli, dorsal view. 10. T 1, dorsal view. 11. Metasomal segments 1 – 2, lateral view, segment 2 glued upside down. Scale 1 mm.