Belonogaster adenensis GIORDANI SOIKA 1957

Dvo, L. & M, J., 2010, New records of vespid wasps from Yemen with synonymy in Belonogaster (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae and Eumeninae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 42 (1), pp. 561-563 : 562

Belonogaster adenensis GIORDANI SOIKA 1957

= Belonogaster adenensis somaliensis RICHARDS 1982 , syn. nov.

M a t e r i a l: 2 km E Hammam Ali, N=14°40’, E=44°10’, 1677 m, 7.4.2007, 1. Jabal Bura', NEE Al Hudaydah, N=14°53’, E=43°26’, 557 m, 19.- 21.3.2007, 1.

Recently reported from Yemen by WAHIS (2000) and GUSENLEITNER (2007).

A female from Hammam Ali has the biggest part of the thorax black, as in B. adenensis somaliensis in RICHARDS’ (1982) key, but does not differ substantially from the female from Jabal Bura’, which largely agrees with the description of the nominate form. The junior author studied the type series of both subspecies in collections of the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH). Contrary to the description in RICHARDS (1982), the sides of the clypeus are not differently marked: the holotypes of both B. a. adenensis and B. a. somaliensis have just the lateral lobes yellow. The holotype of B. a. somaliensis has the mesosoma except the pronotum, scutellum, and metanotum black, but one paratype of B. a. somaliensis has the mesosoma entirely ferruginous, and some B. a. adenensis (including the holotype) have the entire mesosoma tinged with blackish. The wings are the same in both forms, and size overlaps. Richards' key is wrong about the propodeum being reddish in B. a. somaliensis (and contradicts the description), and that the wings are differently coloured. The femoral tomentum is also not different. As shown by these comments, both forms have a large overlap in colour, and there are no other diagnostic characters, so their conspecifity is evident.