Vespula alascensis (Packard)

Matsunaga, Janis N., Howarth, Francis G. & Kumashiro, Bernarr R., 2019, New State Records and Additions to the Alien Terrestrial Arthropod Fauna in the Hawaiian Islands, Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 51 (1), pp. 1-71 : 14

Vespula alascensis (Packard)

Revised name

Close morphological and molecular evaluation of specimens identified as Vespula vulgaris from Europe, New Zealand, Australia , and the U.S. by Carpenter and Glare (2010) concluded that the N. American V. alascensis was previously misidentified as V. vulgaris , its close Eurasian counterpart. Hawaii adults previously identified as Vespula vulgaris were collected from Maui as far back as 1973 and verified by Carpenter as V. alascensis in 2011. This Hawaii population arrived from Northwestern North America probably as hibernating queens in Christmas tree shipments. Vouchers at HDOA.