Polistes albellus Giordani Soika

Schmid-Egger, Christian, Achterberg, Kees van, Neumeyer, Rainer, Jerome Moriniere, & Schmidt, Stefan, 2017, Revision of the West Palaearctic Polistes Latreille, with the descriptions of two species an integrative approach using morphology and DNA barcodes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), ZooKeys 713, pp. 53-112 : 75-77

Polistes albellus Giordani Soika Fig. 1

Polistes bischoffi Weyrauch, 1937, Zoologische Jahrbucher (Jena), Abteilung fur Systematik, Okologie und Geographie der Tiere 70: 274, in part. Mixed type series, see Neumeyer et al. (2014). Most citations of P. bischoffi from Central Europe refer to P. albellus .

Polistes foederatus albellus Giordani Soika, 1976, Acta zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 22(3 4): 272 Holotype female (HNHM, currently on loan, not examined), type locality: Bulgan aimag: Namnan ul mountains, 23 km NW of Somon Chutag, Mongolia (1 paratype female in MSNV, examined by RN).

Polistes helveticus Neumeyer, 2014, ZooKeys, 400: 101-108. Holotype female (NMBE, examined by RN), type locality: Schwerzenbach (Switzerland).

Polistes albellus Neumeyer et al. 2015, Boletin de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa (S.E.A.) 57: 206 211. Species status.

Remarks.

Polistes albellus was confused with P. bischoffi before Neumeyer et al. (2014) clarified the status of the latter by designating a neotype. He re-described the former under the new name P. helveticus . Later, Neumeyer et al. (2015) synonymised P. helveticus with P. albellus , a species described from Mongolia. Genetic results confirmed the conspecificity of the European populations with the Central Asian specimens (for detailed descriptions and discussion see Neumeyer et al. 2014, 2015).

The species typically occurs on humid meadows or along lake shores or in fens with a large reed zone, but it also colonizes dry habitats. In contrast to P. biglumis , P. albellus does not occur at higher altitudes of the Alps. Both species may sometimes occur sympatrically in lowland habitats.

Diagnosis.

The female is characterized by reduced yellow markings and dorsally dark antennal segments. It can be confused mainly with P. biglumis . Distinction of the females of the two species is problematic and they are most easily separated by the lack of an epicnemial ridge in combination with an even transition in sculpture from the coarser sculptured mesopleuron to the finer sculptured epicnemium in P. albellus . Polistes biglumis is characterized by having an epicnemial ridge, with a sudden change from the rather coarse sculpture of mesopleuron to the finer sculpture of the epicnemium. In addition, the mesoscutal setae are shorter in P. albellus than in P. biglumis .

The male is unique within the gallicus -group by the combination of narrow temples (genae) in dorsal view and the antenna, with nearly black or dark brown dorsal surface. Females from Central Asia are darker than European individuals (clypeus may be all black with small basal pale spot), and yellow markings are largely replaced by white or ivory.

Distribution.

Polistes albellus has a wide distribution, ranging from eastern France to the Pacific coast of the Russian Far East, although latitudinally remaining roughly between the 44th (France, Lardiers: 44°03'N) and the 53rd (Russia, Donskoye: 52°03'N) northern latitude ( Neumeyer et al. 2015). In Germany, the northernmost records are from central Hessen ( Tischendorf et al. 2015) and Ebergotzen (Niedersachsen, 51°34'N 10°06'E, Neumeyer et al. 2015). The species usually occurs at elevations below 1000 m a.s.l.

Specimens examined.

Europe: France (eastern part), Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Russia (Orenburg Oblast). Asia: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia (Primorsky Krai), China.

Genetic results.

Specimens from Switzerland, Germany, and regions as far apart as Kazakhstan exhibited little intraspecific variation (0.16%, Table 1).