Vespa ducalis Smith 1852

Kojima, Jun-Ichi, Saito, Fuki & Nguyen, Lien Thi Phuong, 2011, On the species-group taxa of Taiwanese social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) described and / or treated by J. Sonan, Zootaxa 2920, pp. 42-64 : 54

Vespa ducalis Smith 1852 [ Vespa ducalis Smith 1852 ]

Sonan (1927: 128) described behavior of a V. ducalis female foraging on a Polistes formosanus colony nested under the eaves of his house (possibly in Taichung or its vicinity).

Sonan (1929: 138) listed 28 Ƥ (21 queens and seven workers) and 1 3 from Arisan, Horisha, Kagi, Koshun, Kuraru, Kôtôshô, Musha, Nanto, Raisha, Rengechi, Ryutan, Shinchiku, Taihoku, and Urai. He referred to color variations and conluded that sorror would be treated as an aberrant form of V. ducalis rather than a variety. He also stated that this hornet was the “archenemmy” of Polistes species in Taiwan and was also known to attack honeybee hives. It is well known that V. ducalis specializes on hunting independent-founding polistine wasps, such as Polistes and Parapolybia ( Sakagami & Fukushima 1957; Matsuura 1984). Starr (1992), on the other hand, mentioned that V. ducalis in Taiwan hunted honey bees in a specialized manner; that is, “ V. ducalis hovers in front of the entrance [of a bee hive] and dashes at bees in flight.” However, there is no observation that V. ducalis attacks a bee hive as V. mandarinia or V. s o ro r does. Sonan's statement of “bee hive attacks of V. ducalis ” could be based on his treatment of “ soror ” as an aberrant form of V. ducalis .