First record of Vespa crabro Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in western North America with a review of recorded species of Vespa Linnaeus in Canada Bass, Amber Needham, Karen Bennett, Andrew M. R. Zootaxa 2022 2022-06-15 5154 3 305 318 5B9T3 Linnaeus Linnaeus 1758 [151,432,974,1001] Insecta Vespidae Vespa Animalia Hymenoptera 2 307 Arthropoda species crabro   Figs 1–2 The specimen collected on Mayne Island ( Fig. 2) was identified morphologically by the authors as the Japanese colour form of  Vespa crabro, formerly  Vespa crabro flavofasciataCameron(following the taxon concepts of Archer 1992) which is native to Japan, Korea, and eastern Russia( Archer 1992). A 658 base pair (bp) sequence of the specimen (GenBank Accession OL702713) was 100% identical to 14 sequences of  V. crabrofrom South Korea: GenBank Accessions MN716838– MN716841and MN609218– MN609227(see Discussion for details of these sequences), with an E-value of 0.0 and a bit score of 1214.   Material examined:   CANADA: 1 ♀, British Columbia, Mayne Island, Horton Bay, 48°49’29.16”N, 123°14’41.46”W,  28.vi.2020, E. Roth, SEM-UBC HYM-14585, ( SEM) ( Fig. 2);  1 ♀, Ontario, Thwartway Island, 44°17’37.50”N, 76°9’0.45”W,  23.x.1976, R. A. Turner, CNC1754075, DNA voucher AB088 ( CNC);   JAPAN: 1 ♀, Hokkaido, Onuma, 41°58’55.45”N 140°40’13.94”E,  23–24.vii.1966, A. Mutuura, CNC1754076, DNA voucher AB163 ( CNC);   SOUTH KOREA: 1 ♀, Desong-dong, Chipom,  26.v.1952, F.C. R.  Chalke, CNC1754077( CNC);   USA: 1 ♀, Maryland, Calvert Co., Port Republic, 38°30’3.15”N 76°31’44.44”W,  12–15.x.1991. D.M. Wood, CNC1754074, DNA voucher AB087 ( CNC);  1 ♀, North Carolina, Pitt Co., Stokesvic.,  17.ix.1984, R. S. Jacobson( CNC) ( Fig. 1).   Distribution:  Vespa crabrois widespread across the Palaearctic region, introduced and established in the eastern Nearctic and adventive in the northwest Nearctic (current study).   Diagnosis:  Vespa crabrocan be distinguished from other  Vespaspeciescollected in Canadaby having a combination of the following characters: 1) length of gena less than 1.6× length of eye at midheight in lateral view ( Figs 1B, 2B); 2) pretegular carina complete, extending the height of the pronotal lobe ( Fig. 1D); 3) female clypeus with punctures clearly defined, contiguous or nearly so ( Figs 1C, 2C); 4) male metasomal sternites 6–7 with posterior margins straight or only shallowly indented medially. The Japanese form of  V. crabrodiffers from the west European form in that the posterior yellow fasciae on terga 2 to 6 are generally narrow, especially on tergum 2, and sublateral black spots, if present, are not prominently projecting into the yellow fasciae ( Fig. 2B) (west European colour form with larger proportion of terga 2 to 6 yellow, and with sublateral black spots generally prominently projecting into yellow fasciae, at least on terga 3 to 5) ( Fig. 1B). Females of the Japanese form are generally darker than the European form in the ocellar area, as well as the scutellum; however, darkening of these regions does occur in some North American specimens of the European form. 3815670301 2020-06-28 SEM E. Roth Canada 48.824764 Horton Bay 1 -123.24485 Mayne Island 2 307 1 1 British Columbia 3815670317 1976-10-23 R Canada 44.29375 Thwartway Island 1 -76.15012 2 307 1 1 Ontario 3815670312 [651,931,1365,1392] CNC Turner Canada 2 307 CNC1754075 1 3815670311 1966-07-23 1966-07-24 1966-07-23 CNC A. Mutuura Japan 41.98207 Onuma 1 140.67055 2 307 CNC1754076 1 1 Hokkaido 3815670316 [333,1082,1437,1464] 1952-05-26 R South Korea Chipom Desong-dong 2 307 1 1 3815670304 [1094,1432,1437,1464] CNC South Korea Chalke 2 307 CNC1754077 1 3815670315 1991-10-12 1991-10-15 1991-10-12 CNC D. M. Wood United States of America Calvert Co. 38.500874 Port Republic 1 -76.529015 2 307 CNC1754074 1 1 Maryland 3815670307 [664,1302,1510,1536] 1984-09-17 R United States of America Pitt Co. Stokes 2 307 1 1 North Carolina 3815670314 CNC United States of America Jacobson 2 307 1