Vespa multimaculata Pérez, 1910

Lee, John X. Q., Soh, Zestin W. W., Chui, Shao Xiong, Leong, Andrea Q. E., Ong, Christabel N. Y. & Ascher, John S., 2023, Hornets (Vespidae: Vespinae) of Singapore: ecology, identification, and national conservation assessment, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 71, pp. 457-477 : 468

Vespa multimaculata Pérez, 1910 Many-banded Hornet

( Fig. 10 )

Vespa annulata Smith, 1858 . Journal of the proceedings of the Linnean Society. Zoology. 2(6):116, female - [ Malaysia] “Borneo ( Sarawak) Malacca.” (lectotype Oxford). Junior primary homonym of Vespa annulata Rossi, 1790 .

Vespa multimaculata Pérez, 1910 . Actes de la Société linnéenne de Bordeaux 64:14, female - « Brunei (Java)» [Borneo] (lectotype Paris). - van der Vecht, 1957, Zoologische Verhandelingen 34:44 (designation of lectotype).

Vespa multimaculata pendleburyi van der Vecht, 1957 . Zoologische Verhandelingen 34:43, 44, female, male - “Catchment Area near Jitra, Kedah, N. Malaya” (holotype female Leiden); also from elsewhere in Peninsular Malaysia; Thailand; Singapore; Indonesia: Sumatra .

Global distribution. Brunei; Laos; Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak); Thailand; Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatra); Singapore.

Diagnosis. This smallest of the Vespa species in Singapore is visually distinctive. Workers average 16 mm, males 18 mm and queens 20 mm in total body length. It is the only species with a black marking on a yellow clypeus, mostly yellow legs, two yellow spots on a black scutellum, and with a yellow band on the apical margin of each gastral tergum ( Fig. 10 ).

Remarks. This forest-associated species was last recorded from Singapore Island (as V. annulata ) by Dover (1929; see also van der Vecht, 1957; Archer, 2012). It is presumed to be nationally extinct (see below) as it was not recorded during surveys for aculeate Hymenoptera in likely habitats by the authors from 2006 until the date of publication. Targeted efforts to collect and document the species within the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve ( Leong, 2018; Ascher et al., 2019) through baiting and hand netting also proved unsuccessful, although we have located the species recently on short visits to Peninsular Malaysia. Martin (1995) describes this as a fast and agile species with a flight pattern over the forest floor resembling that of a bluebottle fly; thus, it might still be overlooked during forest surveys. Koeniger et al. (1996) described the hunting behaviour of V. multimaculata at the nest of the honey bee Apis nuluensis in Sabah, in which individual wasps hovered in front of the nest entrance and attempted to intercept returning bees, a behaviour also known in V. velutina ( Chauzat & Martin, 2009) and Vespa bicolor Fabricius, 1787 ( Sung et al., 2014; pers. obs.). It is known to nest under logs ( Nakane & Yamane, 1990) and underground, often under the roots of trees, with nests reaching diameters of 20-30 cm ( Martin, 1995). A nest collected in Pahang, Malaysia was described by Archer (2011). A recent record in 2022 submitted to iNaturalist from Jambi in Sumatra (https:// www.inaturalist.org/observations/108640469) demonstrates persistence there, but lack of records elsewhere of this readily identifiable species suggest that it may be scarce or elusive, potentially due to a preference for higher quality forest.

Figures

Fig. 10. Vespa multimaculata feeding on inflorescences of a palm (Arecaceae) in Selangor, Malaysia in September 2022. (Photographs: Mike Hooper).