Eumenes dubius (de Saussure, 1852)

Cassar, Thomas, Mifsud, David & Selis, Marco, 2022, The potter wasps of the Maltese Islands (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae), Journal of Hymenoptera Research 90, pp. 201-212 : 201

Eumenes dubius (de Saussure, 1852)

Material examined.

None.

Notes.

This species was recorded as Eumenes dubius dubius (de Saussure, 1852) from the Maltese Islands ( Schembri 1980) on the basis of a single male and a single female collected in April 1977 and September 1975 respectively. This taxon, distributed throughout southern Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor to Central Asia, differs from the Middle Eastern subspecies Eumenes dubius palaestinensis Blüthgen, 1938 by the colour of the flagellum (reddish in E. d. palaestinensis ) and a lack of an indented lamella on the second tergite ( Gusenleitner 1999). It is possible that the Maltese record of this species should refer to E. sareptanus André, 1884, a species often confused with E. dubius and more common in Southern Europe. Since the specimens recorded by Schembri were not available for confirmation of their identity, E. dubius is momentarily maintained as present in the Maltese Islands.