Eumenes dubius de Saussure, 1852

van Achterberg, Cornelis, Smit, John T. & Ljubomirov, Toshko, 2023, Review of the European Eumenes Latreille (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) using morphology and DNA barcodes, with an illustrated key to species, ZooKeys 1143, pp. 93-163 : 93

Eumenes dubius de Saussure, 1852

Figs 75-84, 85-93

Eumenes dubia de Saussure, 1852: 32 (depository of type series unknown).

Eumenes dubius ; Tobias and Kurzenko 1978: 160; Giordani Soika and Borsato 1995: 7; Arens 2012: 486; Neumeyer 2019: 275; Baldock et al. 2020: 43; Cassar et al. 2022: 207.

Eumenes dubius dubius ; Castro 1997: 4; Borsato and Turrisi 2004: 144; Borsato 2006: 142; Castro and Sanza 2009: 266; Gusenleitner 2013: 27.

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius dubius ; van der Vecht and Fischer 1972: 127 (literature before 1972); Castro 1992: 24; Dal Pos et al. 2022: 15.

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius ; Fateryga 2017: 181-182, 2018: 206.

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius dubius var. palaestinensis Blüthgen, 1938: 467; Fateryga 2017 (as synonym of E. dubius ).

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius palaestinensis ; van der Vecht and Fischer 1972: 127 (literature before 1972); Dal Pos et al. 2022: 15.

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius dubius var. macedonica Blüthgen, 1952: 5, 15; Fateryga 2017 (as synonym of E. dubius ).

Eumenes (Eumenes) dubius macedonicus ; van der Vecht and Fischer 1972: 127 (literature before 1972); Dal Pos et al. 2022: 15.

Notes.

Rarely collected species in C and S Europe, but common in Spain and Portugal ( Castro 1992; Baldock et al. 2020) and S Greece ( Arens 2012). Castro (1992) collected a large series in NE Spain and because of the observed variation in his series he concluded that the European specimens of E. sareptanus should be included under E. dubius . According to the NJ tree based on COI sequences in Schmid-Egger and Schmidt (2021) E. sareptanus is a species separate from E. dubius (both from Spain) and both differ from E. dubius from Cyprus. According to Gusenleitner (1972) specimens from Cyprus are more or less intermediately coloured to E. d. palaestinensis Blüthgen and possibly this name should be applied if it concerns a valid species. Because of the differences in COI sequences combined with the usually distinct difference in the shape of the male apical antennal segment we refrain from including E. sareptanus under E. dubius as was proposed by Castro (1992), Gereys (2016) and Baldock et al. (2020) till a more thoroughly study is made of this complex. Traditionally, E. dubius is separated from E. sareptanus by having the setae of the mesoscutum about half as long as apical width of the scape and the apical lamella of the second tergite as long as height of preapical vertical depression of the tergite. Unfortunately, both seems too variable for separating both taxa.

Distribution.

Asia, Central and South Europe. Absent in Switzerland according to Neumeyer (2019) and common in Peloponnesus (Greece; Arens 2012). Outside Europe in N Africa, Caucasus, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Introduced in S America ( Gusenleitner 1999).

Figures

Figures 85 - 93. Eumenes dubius de Saussure, Bulgaria, male 85 metasoma lateral 86 first metasomal tergite dorsal 87 first tergite ventral 88 head and mesosoma dorsal 89 apical hook of antenna lateral 90 head anterior 91 head and propleuron lateral 92 apical hook of antenna latero-ventral 93 mesoscutum and scutellum lateral.