Carinoscolia nipponensis ( Uchida, 1933 ) Liu & Achterberg & He & Chen, 2021

Liu, Zhen, Achterberg, Cornelis Van, He, Jun-Hua & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2021, A checklist of Scoliidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) from China, Zootaxa 4966 (2), pp. 101-126 : 112

24. Carinoscolia nipponensis ( Uchida, 1933) , new status

Scolia (Carinoscolia) vittifrons f. nipponensis Uchida, 1933: 242 , ♀, Japan (type in Entomological Museum, Sapporo) .

Scolia nipponensis fascinata var. nipponensis: Betrem, 1941: 114 .

Carinoscolia vittifrons nipponensis: Osten, 2005: 45 .

Distribution. China (Hubei, Sichuan); Japan and Korea.

Notes. The status of C. nipponensis has been changed several times. Originally, it was described as a variety of C. vittifrons (Sichel) when found by Uchida in Japan for its black head, darker wings, and the very small spots on T 3 in both sexes ( Uchida 1933). Betrem (1941) treated it as a variety of C. fascinata Smith by displaying the differences between C. fascinata and C. vittifrons . Osten (2005) treated it as a subspecies of C. vittifrons again.

We found a male from Sichuan province of China (IOZ) and a female from Hubei (RMNH) of C. nipponensis , both are different from the nominate C. vittifrons . We consider C. nipponensis a separate species because of the distinct carina present on the area between the antennal sockets (“frontal spatium”) in both sexes and the nearly completely dark integument of both sexes.