Vespa fumida van der Vecht, 1959

Vu, Thuong Thi, Nguyen, Lien Thi Phuong & Wiśniowski, Bogdan, 2020, Taxonomic notes on the genus Vespa Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae Vespinae) from Vietnam, with a new record of a species and an updated key to species, Zootaxa 4801 (3), pp. 584-590 : 585

Vespa fumida van der Vecht, 1959

( Figs 1–2 )

Vespa variabilis du Buysson, 1905 (1904) , Ann. Soc. Entomol. Fr. 73: 490 (key), 522, 627, female—“ Chine: Mou-pin ” (lectotype Paris); Junior primary homonym of Vespa variabilis Fabricius, 1781 .

Vespa variabilis fumida van der Vecht, 1959 , Zool. Meded., Leiden 36 (13): 228, female—“ India... ‘British Bootan’, Padong” (Paris).

This species is newly recorded from Vietnam. It was collected in the northern part of the country, in Cao Bang and Lao Cai provinces. It has head orange-yellow ( Fig. 1 ), body black, and the last metasomal segment yellow ( Fig. 2 ) .

Material examined. VIETNAM: Cao Bang: 1 female, Phia Oac-Phia Den NP, Nguyen Binh , 22°35′07.7″N 105°51′59.8″E, alt. 900–1100m, 24.v.2018, Nguyen LTP ; Lao Cai: 2 females, Phan Can Su , Bat Xat NR, 22°39′19″N 103°37′27″E, alt. 1931m, 1.viii.2019, Nguyen LTP, Nguyen CQ, Tran NT, Tran UTP .

Distribution. India: Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam; Bhutan; Nepal; Myanmar; China: Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Hubei, Fujian, Tibet; Vietnam (new record).

Figures

FIGURES 1–5. Characters of Vietnamese Vespa. 1–2. Vespa fumida van der Vecht, 1959. 1. Head in frontal view. 2. Habitus. 3–5. Vespa mocsaryana du Buysson, 1905. 3. Worker. 4. Queen. 5. Complete queen nest.