Ropalidia sumatrae ( Weber, 1801 )

Bui, Hoa Thi Quynh, Tran, Ngat Thi, Bozdoğan, Hakan & Nguyen, Lien Thi Phuong, 2020, Additional knowledge respecting taxonomy of the social wasp genus Ropalidia (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) from Vietnam, with new records of three species and an updated key to species, Zootaxa 4722 (1), pp. 34-40 : 34-40

Ropalidia sumatrae ( Weber, 1801)

( Figs 5–6 )

Vespa Sumatrae Weber, 1801 , Observ. Entomol. Kiliae: 103—“ Sumatra ” (type depository unknown).

Ropalidia sumatrae ; van der Vecht, 1941, Treubia 18: 104 (syn.: Icaria marangensis Gribodo , Vespa mutillata Illiger , Polistes pubescens Fabricius , I. rufinoda Cameron , Eumenes formicaria Fabricius , Anthreneida coronata White , I. speciosa de Saussure ), 113 (key), 181 (taxonomy; female, male; fig.; distr.).

Ropalidia sumatrae sumatrae ; van der Vecht, 1962, Zool. Verh., Leiden 57: 35, pls. 1 and 3 (in subgenus Anthreneida ; ethology).

Kojima and Carpenter (1997) in their catalog of species in the polistine tribe Ropalidiini stated that Ropalidia sumatrae occuring in Vietnam as they cited van der Vecht (1941: 181): Indo China: 1 female, Haut Mekong, Vien Ponkha, May ‚18, R. V. DE SALVAZA {British Museum}, but that local name was not Vietnamese name, probably it was a local name in Laos. Pham and Li (2015) also listed the species as occuring in Vietnam, but give no more information; maybe they followed Kojima and Carpenter (1997). In our study, the species was recorded in one province in the central high land of Vietnam (Tay Nguyen), which confirmed the occurrence of the species in Vietnam after 20 years of doubtful information.

Material examined: Gia Lai: 2 females, Ka Bang, Konpne, Kon Ka Kinh NP, 14°23’22.9’’N, 108°20’27.5’’E, 847 m, 16.VII.2012, LTP Nguyen .

Distribution: India: West Bengal; Myanmar; Thailand; Vietnam; China: Yunnan; Malaysia; Singapore; Indonesia: Kalimantan, Bangka, Sumatra.

Figures

FIGURES 1–8. Figs. 1–2. Ropalidia binghami, female. 1. Head, frontal view. 2. Habitus. Figs. 3–4. Ropalidia parartifex, female. 1. Head, frontal view. 2. Habitus. Figs. 5–6. Ropalidia sumatrae, female. 1. Head, frontal view. 2. Habitus. Figs. 7–8. Ropalidia variegata, female. 1. Head, frontal view. 2. Habitus. Scale: 1mm