Ropalidia flavopicta (Smith, 1857)

Tan, Jiang-Li, Van Achterberg, Kees & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2014, Pictorial key to species of the genus Ropalidia Guerin-Meneville, 1831 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) from China, with description of one new species, ZooKeys 391, pp. 1-35 : 17-18

Ropalidia flavopicta (Smith, 1857) Figure 1E

Icaria flavopicta Smith, 1857: 99. Type locality: Borneo.

Ropalidia flavopicta ; Bequaert 1918: 246.

Ropalidia flavopicta flavopicta ; van der Vecht 1962: 42.

Specimens examined.

MALAYSIA: 1 ♂ (RMNH), S. Sabah, near Long Pa Sia, c 1010 m, 25.xi.-8.xii.1987, Mal. trap, C van Achterberg; 1 ♂ (RMNH), S. Sabah, Beaufort, 0°20'S, 115°43'E, 1.iv.1987, J van Tol & J Huisman; 1 ♀ (RMNH), Sabah, Brumas NBT, 23-27.iv.1973, KM Guichard. INDONESIA: 1 ♀ (RMNH), W. Sumatra, Padangpanjang, 1.v.1988, 0°30'S, 100°26'E, R Hensen (labelled Ropalidia flavopicta (Smith, 1857) by J. Kojima in 1996).

Remarks.

No specimens from China were available in the present study, but this species was reported from China by Liu (1936-37). Van der Vecht (1962) recognized eight subspecies of Ropalidia flavopicta . The identification characters of the species Ropalidia flavopicta were not well enough defined before Kojima (1982, 1996a) re-examined the eight subspecies and concluded that eight valid species are involved. Therefore, the presence in China needs reconfirmation.

Distribution.

China (Hong Kong); Borneo; Malay Peninsula; Sumatra; Vietnam. ( Liu 1936-37, van der Vecht 1962, Kojima 1996a, Kojima and Carpenter 1997 and updated to 2006, Nguyen et al. 2006)