Vespa mandarinia Smith, 1852

Bass, Amber, Needham, Karen & Bennett, Andrew M. R., 2022, First record of Vespa crabro Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in western North America with a review of recorded species of Vespa Linnaeus in Canada, Zootaxa 5154 (3), pp. 305-318 : 310

Vespa mandarinia Smith

Fig. 3

One specimen from the initial North American record of Vespa mandarinia ( British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, 2019) was examined morphologically ( Fig. 3 ) in comparison with specimens from Asia deposited in the CNC.

Material examined: CANADA: 1 ♀, British Columbia, Nanaimo , 17.viii.2019, J. Duff, SEM-UBC HYM-14395 ( SEM) ( Fig. 3A–C ) ; JAPAN: 1 ♀, Kyushu , 32°31’25” N, 131°31’38” E, 22.IX.2006, J & R Skevington , CNC DIPTERA3231 ( CNC) ( Fig. 3D ) ; 1 ♀, Kyushu, Seita, Iizuka , Fukuoka, 10–15.x.2013, A., H., & Y. Matsugama ( CNC) .

Distribution: India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, eastern Russia, Korea, Japan ( Smith-Pardo et al. 2020), Canada (British Columbia) ( British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries 2021) and United States of America (Washington State) ( Wilson et al. 2020).

Diagnosis: Vespa mandarinia can be distinguished from other Vespa species that have been recorded in Canada by a combination of the following characters: 1) length of gena at least 1.7 × as long as eye at midheight as seen in lateral view ( Fig. 3D ), 2) metasomal terga 3–6 usually with a wide, orange posterior band, terga 3–5 sometimes completely black, but tergum 6 always predominantly orange ( Fig. 3B ).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Vespa mandarinia. A–C. Specimen collected at Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. D. Specimen collected in Kyushu, Japan. A. Dorsal habitus. B. Lateral habitus. C. Anterior view of head. D. Lateral view of head. el = eye length, gl = gena length, T6 = tergum 6. Scale bars: 1 mm.