Malayepipona flaviclypeata Bai, Chen & Li, sp. n.

(Figs 10–21)

Material examined. Holotype, 1♀, China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin City, Longsheng County, Sanmen Town, Huaping Nature Reserve, 25.624°N, 109.916°E, 740 m, 16.VII.2018, Xue Zhang (CNU); paratype: 1♂, same data as holotype.

Diagnosis. This species is easily distinguished from all other species of Malayepipona by the following character combination: wings dark brown, lightly infuscate and purple reflective (Figs 10–11), in both sexes clypeus wholly yellow (Figs 12–13) and vertex with two cephalic foveae (Figs 14–15), and T2 with indistinct apical lamella, just visible in lateral view (Fig. 19).

Description. Female (Fig. 10). Body length 13.5 mm, forewing length 14.5 mm; body covered with short, silver setae except lower part of propodeum with dense long silver setae; black, with the following parts orange–yellow: clypeus, basal inner margin of mandible, scape ventrally, interantennal spot, pronotum medially and brown narrow band with branches extending along posterodorsal margin of pronotum, spots on inner and upper side of fore tibia, apical bands of T1–T2; inner part of tegula and parategula dark brown, outer part of tegula dark ferruginous; wings dark brown, lightly infuscate, purple reflective.

Head. In frontal view, head subcircular, about 1.1 times as wide as long (Fig. 12); vertex with two cephalic foveae somewhat bigger than maximum punctures on vertex, bearing dense pubescence, area surrounding foveae slightly depressed and finely punctate, distance between foveae as long as distance between posterior ocelli (Fig. 14); distance from posterior ocellus to apical margin of vertex about 1.9 times of the distance from posterior ocellus to inner eye margin; vertex and gena coarsely, moderately with punctures, interspaces with distinct small punctures (Fig. 14); punctures of frons coarser than those of vertex and gena, interspaces reticulate (Figs 12); gena slightly narrower than eye, occipital carina complete, along gena; in frontal view, distance between inner eye margins at vertex as long as that at clypeus; clypeus (Fig. 12) densely punctate and sparser than frons, about 1.1 times as wide as long, in lateral view convex at basal half, apical margin strongly emarginate medially and U-shaped, laterally forming a sharp tooth; clypeal width: emargination width = 1.78: 0.41; mandible with four teeth, the first tooth quite short and with inner side slightly concave, second and third teeth trapezoid with inner side produced, the outer one pointed apically (Fig. 12); A1 about 3.6 times as long as its maximum width, curved; A3 about 1.7 times longer than wide, A4 wide, A5–A7 as wide as long, A8–A11 wider than long, A12 bullet–shaped, as long as its basal width.

Mesosoma. Mesosoma longer than wide in dorsal view (Fig. 17); pronotum coarsely, moderately punctate dorsally and similar to those on vertex, laterally punctures denser and interspaces slightly reticulate, interspaces of pronotum with distinct small punctures; pronotal carina raised and complete; mesoscutum weakly convex, slightly longer than wide between tegulae, posterior apex with two deep longitudinal furrow (Fig. 17), punctures on mesoscutum similar to those on pronotum; scutellum slightly convex, in lateral view at the same level of mesoscutum, punctures on scutellum similar to those on mesoscutum; metanotum weakly convex, sloping down to apical margin, punctures on metanotum larger than mesoscutum, strongly carinate and reticulate; mesepisternum with dense, large, flat–bottomed punctures, larger than pronotum; metapleuron dorsally with several punctures and mostly impunctate, ventrally with several shallow small punctures (Fig. 16); propodeum (Figs 16–18) dorsally with irregular punctures and coarser than mesepisternum, strongly carinate and reticulate, without a pair of blunt teeth behind metanotum, medially excavated and the basal fovea with extending propodeal carina medially, the basal fovea about 0.2 times of the length of the median carina which runs from the fovea basally to the apical margin; dorsal and posterior surfaces connected by blunt edge, posterior and lateral surfaces connected by bluntly angulate, laterally with dense, large, flat-bottomed punctures, the depth of the punctures on the lateral surfaces decreasing from upper to bottom; outer part of posterior surface smooth and coriaceous and inner part densely with oblique striae which runs from propodeal carina, longitudinally with irregular and shallow depression along propodeal carina, widened at the basal fovea medially and at apical margin.

.

Metasoma. T1 (Fig. 19) about 2.1 times as wide as long, and basally truncate and weakly raised edge, without carina; anterior vertical surface weakly convex, with sparse punctures; T2 (Fig. 19) with unobvious apical lamella, just visible in lateral view, T2 about 1.1 times as wide as long; S2 (Fig. 20) in lateral view slightly convex from base to apical margin, in frontal view weakly concave at basal; T1 with moderate punctures coarser and denser than punctures on T2; punctures on S2 a bit sparser than to those on T2, punctures on T3–T4 denser and smaller than on T2, punctures on S3–S5 and T5 smaller than on T4, T6 with minute punctures sparser than S6.

Male (Fig. 11). Body length 13.5 mm, forewing length 14.0 mm. Sculpture, punctuation, setae, and coloration as in female except as follows: mandible (Fig. 13) mostly yellow, two yellow spots on pronotum medially smaller than in female; orange–yellow spots on inner and upper side of middle tibia and femur; head about 1.2 times as wide as long in frontal view; distance between cephalic foveae about 0.9 times as long as distance between posterior ocelli (Fig. 15); distance from posterior ocellus to apical margin of the vertex about 2.1 times of the distance from posterior ocellus to inner eye margin; eye strongly swollen laterally; in frontal view, distance between inner eye margins at vertex about 1.1 times that at clypeus; gena narrow, in lateral view about 0.6 times as wide as eye; clypeal punctures with sparser than in female, about 1.1 times as wide as long (Fig. 13); clypeal width: emargination width = 1.61: 0.48; antenna (Fig. 21) slender than in female, A1 about 3 times as long as its maximum width; A3 about 2 times as long as wide, A4–A7 slightly longer than wide, A8–A9 about wider than long, A10 longer than wide, A13 elongate, curved, backward reaching apical margin of A10, about twice as long as its basal width; scutellum with deep longitudinal furrow medially; metapleuron dorsally deep depressions, and with several punctures and strong striae; T7 almost without punctures, coriaceous, S7 with shallow punctures larger than T6.

Distribution. China (Guangxi).

Etymology. The specific name is derived from two Latin words: flavus (= yellow) and clypeus (= clypeus), referring to the yellow clypeus in males and females.