Eumenes blandus sumbanus Giordani Soika 1992

Nugroho, Hari, Kojima, Jun-Ichi & Ubaidillah, Rosichon, 2013, Review of potter wasps with a petiolate metasoma excluding so-called " Zethinae " (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae) in the Lesser Sunda Islands of the Indonesian Archipelago, Zootaxa 3608 (1), pp. 1-25 : 4

Eumenes blandus sumbanus Giordani Soika 1992

(Figs 1, 4, 11, 12)

Eumenes blandus sumbanus Giordani Soika 1992: 65 , Ƥ, holotype, Central Sumba: Lukojengo, [Nationaal Naturhistorisch Museum - Naturalis, Leiden].

Material examined. SUMBA I.: 1 3 (MZB), 09°43'S 120°02'E, alt. 500 m, Makaminggit, Nggahariango, Sumba Timur, J. Kojima & R. Ubaidillah, 30 Jan.2003; 1 Ƥ (MZB), 10°01.107'S 120°03.385'E, alt. 320 m, Laiwanggi, A. Perrard, 15–19 Jun.2010.

Redescription. FEMALE. Body length 11 mm; fore wing length 9 mm. Clypeus in lateral view strongly convex anteriorly, in frontal view as long as wide (Fig. 11). Mandible with dorsalmost tooth short and blunt. Scutellum moderately convex. Propodeum in lateral view strongly convex; longitudinal median furrow superficial; posterior face barely depressed medially in dorsal half, more or less distinctly depressed medially in ventral half. Metasomal tergum 1 in lateral view convex dorsally in apical two thirds (Fig. 1). Tergum 2 strongly gibbous (Fig. 1), with strong preapical depression; sternum 2 in lateral view barely convex (Fig. 1).

Body covered with dense silvery hairs; clypeus with silky pubescence. Body black but: clypeus entirely yellow; labrum, mandible except black basal part, antenna beneath, paired posterolateral spots on pronotum, tegula, parategula, ferruginous; markings on propodeum, paired lateral spots and apical band on tergum 1, orange; area behind black base part of tergum 1, extending posteriorly to orange lateral spots, ferruginous; medially incised wide apical band on tergum 2, yellow; apical bands on metasomal segments 3–6 (sometimes absent on segment 6), pale ferruginous. Wings fusco-hyaline, with greenish or purplish iridescence.

MALE. Body length 10 mm; fore wing length 8 mm. Similar to female, but clypeus in frontal view proportionally narrower (Fig. 12) than in female; mandible with dorsalmost tooth long and sharp; antenna dark brown, basal one fifth of scape and flagellomeres 1–3 and 8–10 ferruginous beneath, terminal flagellomere paleferruginous; ferruginous part of metasomal tergum 1 more extensive, reaching the apical part.

Remarks. Eumenes blandus shows a disjunct distribution; it has been recorded in Moluccas as the nominotypical subspecies E. b. blandus and on Sumba Island as subspecies E. b. sumbanus . They can be distinguished only in the marking pattern, the former having more extensive but darker markings than the latter. Their taxonomic status, whether diagnosable species or local color forms, can be decided only after further intensive studies are carried out.

Distribution. Indonesia: Sumba.