Eustenogaster eximia ( Bingham, 1890 )

Saito, Fuki & Kojima, Jun-Ichi, 2007, A taxonomic revision of the hover wasp genus Eustenogaster van der Vecht (Insecta: Hymenoptera; Vespidae, Stenogastrinae), Zootaxa 1556, pp. 1-30 : 26

Eustenogaster eximia ( Bingham, 1890)

Ischnogaster eximius Bingham, 1890: 244 .

This species is similar to E. latebricola Saito , sp. nov., but can be distinguished from the latter by the combination of the following characters: clypeus and supraclypeal area less convex; mesoscutum with fine, shallow punctures; scutellum less convex ( Fig. 49 ); terminal three antennal flagellomeres orange; metasoma brown, but second to fourth terga posteriorly black; second sternum entirely black; wings semi-hyaline, brown, darker than in E. latebricola ; legs brown, fore femur and tibia yellow beneath.

Material examined. Sri Lanka: 1Ψ ( RMNH), Kanneliya Jungle, Gal[le] Dist., 13–16.viii.1972, K.V. Krombein & P.B. Karunaratne; 1Ψ ( RMNH), Induruwa (Jungle), Gilimale, Rat[napura] Dist., 13–15.iii.1979, K.V. Krombein et al ..

Distribution: India; Sri Lanka; China: Yunnan (recorded by Dong & Otsuka 1997, but needs confirmation); Thailand; Malaysia: Peninsular Malaysia.

Note: Dover and Rao (1922) described Stenogaster eximioides from “Nadgani, Nilgiri Hills” (Tamli Nadu Province, India) and Dover (1925) synonymized it with Stenogaster eximia . Bell (1936) described Paravespa eva from Bombay (= Mumbai, N. Kanara District, India). Das and Gupta (1984) reinstated eximioides as a subspecies of E. eximia and treated Paravespa eva as a junior synonym of E. eximia eximioides . As no specimens from India that match the color pattern of eximioides are available for the present study, the taxonomic status of both Stenogaster eximioides Dover and Rao, 1922 and Paravespa eva Bell, 1936 deserves future study.

Figures

FIGURES 46 – 49. 46 – 48, Eustenogaster latebricola Saito, sp. nov., male paratype. 49, E. eximia, female. 46 – 47, head; 46, frontal view and 47, lateral view. 48, ventroapical part of penis valve of aedeagus. 49, scutellum (SCL) and metanotum (MN) in lateral view. Scale bars show 1 mm except for fig. 48.