Vespa formosana Sonan 1927

Kojima, Jun-Ichi, Saito, Fuki & Nguyen, Lien Thi Phuong, 2011, On the species-group taxa of Taiwanese social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) described and / or treated by J. Sonan, Zootaxa 2920, pp. 42-64 : 53-54

Vespa formosana Sonan 1927 [ Vespa affinis Linnaeus 1764 ]

Sonan (1927) did not designate the holotype when he described this nominal taxon based on queen(s) [body length 28 mm; wing span 50 mm; fore wing length 21 mm], worker(s) [body length 22 mm; wing span 35 mm; fore wing length 16 mm] and male(s) [body length 21 mm; wing span 41 mm; fore wing length 18 mm] from “Taihoku, Kagi, Takezaki, Nanto, Daimokko, Maruyama”. Starr (1992: 102) mentioned “ types examined: 1 queen, 1 worker, 1 3”, which does not constitute lectotype designation.

Type material. In TARI, we located only the following specimens that could be from the type series of Vespa formosana . LECTOTYPE (designated here): one queen (body length 28 mm; wing span 46 mm; fore wing length 20 mm), with labels of Type label, “Taihoku / 3.VII 1926 / Col. J. Sonan”, “ Vespa formosana / Sonan”, and “161”. PARALECTOTYPES: one worker (body length 21 mm; wing span 33 mm; fore wing length 16 mm), with Type label, “Ƥ type ”, “Kagi / 14 VI 1926 / Toyota”, “ Vespa formosana / Sonan” and “162”; and 1 3 (body length 19 mm; fore wing length 18 mm), with Type label, “ type 3”, “ Vespa formosana / Sonan”, and “163” but without any collection data label. These specimens could be those that Starr (1992) refered to as “ types examined”.

Sonan (1929) listed the following specimens that he examined: 1 worker, Dakusui (Ratô), 4.XI.1928 (J. Sonan); 1 worker, Fukô, 1.VII.1925 (J. Sonan); 1 worker *, Kagi, 25.VI.1926 (K. Toyota); 2 workers *, Kagi, 10.VI.1926 (K. Toyota); 1 worker *, Kagi, XI.1923 (M. Kato); 1 queen *, Kagi, 24.VII.1924 (K. Toyota); 1 queen *, Nanto, IV.1910 (G. Toba); 1 queen *, Nanto, IV.1910 (T. Shiraki); 1 worker, Sozan, 29.IX.1926 (J. Sonan); 1 worker *, Taihoku, 27.VIII.1908 (I. Nitobe); 1 worker *, Taihoku, 28.II.1913 (S. Inamura); 1 queen *, Taihoku, XI.1912 (I. Nitobe); 1 queen, Taihoku, 23.V.1928 (J. Sonan); 1 queen *, Taihoku, VII.1925 (J. Sonan); 1 queen *, Taihoku, 5.VI.1908 (I. Nitobe); 1 queen *, Taihoku, 3. VII.1 [9]26 (J. Sonan); 1 queen *, Taihoku, XI.1912 (I. Nitobe); 2 workers *, Taihoku, 30.VIII.1925 (J. Sonan); 1 worker *, Takezaki, 15.IX.1926 (J. Sonan). Among these specimens those with asterisks had been collected before year 1927 when the original description of Vespa formosana was published, and at the localities mentioned in the original description; they could be examined by Sonan when he prepared the original description. However, Sonan (1927) did not mention any variation in color pattern or morphology, and thus we conclude that the original description was based on the three specimens (one queen, one worker and one male) with the Type labels. The queen specimen from “Taihoku” that has a label of specimen number “161” is here desiganated as the lectotype of Vespa formosana Sonan 1927 . The worker from “Kagi” (specimen number “162”) and the male with specimen number “163” are paralectotypes.

Bequaert (1936: 345), on the strength of the original descriptions and specimens from “Takao” and “Hu Sia” [unrecognized locality], synonymized this nominal taxon under Vespa affinis (Linnaeus) . Later he ( Bequaert 1939: 42) confirmed his own synonymy, mentioning “Dr. K. Yasumatsu sent me recently a specimen of what is called V.

formosana by Japanese entomologists.” However, Bequaert's synonymy has long been overlooked. Van der Vecht (1957, 1959) did not refer to this synonymy, Kuo (1984) and Kuo & Yeh (1987) used V. f o r m o s a n a to describe ecological aspects of this species, and finally Starr (1992) referred to Sonan's types and recognized the synonymy of V. formosana with V. affinis but did not refer to Bequaert's synonymy. The lectotype (and also paralectotypes) of Vespa formosana here designated belongs to V. affinis and the synonymy of Bequaert (1936) has been confirmed.