Vespa crabro Linnaeus, 1758

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 : 307

Vespa crabro Linnaeus

Figs 1–2

The specimen collected on Mayne Island ( Fig. 2 ) was identified morphologically by the authors as the Japanese colour form of Vespa crabro , formerly Vespa crabro flavofasciata Cameron (following the taxon concepts of Archer 1992) which is native to Japan, Korea, and eastern Russia ( Archer 1992). A 658 base pair (bp) sequence of the specimen (GenBank Accession OL702713 ) was 100% identical to 14 sequences of V. crabro from South Korea: GenBank Accessions MN716838 – MN716841 and MN609218 – MN609227 (see Discussion for details of these sequences), with an E-value of 0.0 and a bit score of 1214.

Material examined: CANADA: 1 ♀, British Columbia, Mayne Island, Horton Bay , 48°49’29.16”N, 123°14’41.46”W, 28.vi.2020, E. Roth, SEM-UBC HYM-14585, ( SEM) ( Fig. 2 ) ; 1 ♀, Ontario, Thwartway Island , 44°17’37.50”N, 76°9’0.45”W, 23.x.1976, R . A. Turner, CNC1754075 , DNA voucher AB088 ( CNC); JAPAN: 1 ♀, Hokkaido, Onuma , 41°58’55.45”N 140°40’13.94”E, 23–24.vii.1966, A. Mutuura, CNC1754076 , DNA voucher AB163 ( CNC); SOUTH KOREA: 1 ♀, Desong-dong, Chipom , 26.v.1952, F.C. R . Chalke , CNC1754077 ( CNC) ; USA: 1 ♀, Maryland, Calvert Co., Port Republic , 38°30’3.15”N 76°31’44.44”W, 12–15.x.1991. D.M. Wood, CNC1754074 , DNA voucher AB087 ( CNC); 1 ♀, North Carolina, Pitt Co., Stokes vic., 17.ix.1984, R . S. Jacobson ( CNC) ( Fig. 1 ) .

Distribution: Vespa crabro is widespread across the Palaearctic region, introduced and established in the eastern Nearctic and adventive in the northwest Nearctic (current study).

Diagnosis: Vespa crabro can be distinguished from other Vespa species collected in Canada by having a combination of the following characters: 1) length of gena less than 1.6× length of eye at midheight in lateral view ( Figs 1B , 2B ); 2) pretegular carina complete, extending the height of the pronotal lobe ( Fig. 1D ); 3) female clypeus with punctures clearly defined, contiguous or nearly so ( Figs 1C , 2C ); 4) male metasomal sternites 6–7 with posterior margins straight or only shallowly indented medially. The Japanese form of V. crabro differs from the west European form in that the posterior yellow fasciae on terga 2 to 6 are generally narrow, especially on tergum 2, and sublateral black spots, if present, are not prominently projecting into the yellow fasciae ( Fig. 2B ) (west European colour form with larger proportion of terga 2 to 6 yellow, and with sublateral black spots generally prominently projecting into yellow fasciae, at least on terga 3 to 5) ( Fig. 1B ). Females of the Japanese form are generally darker than the European form in the ocellar area, as well as the scutellum; however, darkening of these regions does occur in some North American specimens of the European form.

Figures

FIGURE 1. West European colour form of Vespa crabro (USA: NC).A. Dorsal habitus. B. Lateral habitus. C. Anterior view of head. D. Lateral view of pronotum. pnc = pronotal carina, pnl = pronotal lobe, ptc = pretegular carina. Scale bars: 1 mm.

FIGURE 2. Japanese colour form of Vespa crabro specimen collected on Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada. A. Dorsal habitus. B. Lateral habitus. C. Anterior view of head. Scale bars: 1 mm.