ENTOMOLOGIST'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE 161 THE NUMBER OF SPECIES TFIAT CAN BE RECOGNISED WITHIN THE GENUS VESPA (I{YM., VESPINAE) BY MICI{AE,L E. ARCHE,R ABSTRACT Twenty-three species of Vespa are recognised. Three new synonyms are proposed: V. suprunenkoi is a synonym of V. binghami, V. wilemaniof V. vivax and V. walkeriof V. dybowskii. Each of the following species are split into two species: V. auraria is split from V. velutina, V. soror from V. mandarinia and V. ducalis from I/. tropica. INTRODUCTION The hornets (Vespa Linnaeus, 1758) have long been recognised as a distinct taxonomic group and given the rank of genus since 1869 (Edwards, 1980). Because so many colour forms of Vespa have been described it is necessary to determine the number of species that these colour forms represent. Du Buysson (1904, 1905) described 42 colow forms of Vespa which he organised into 26 species (Table 1), although he was aware he had not examined all described colour forms and listed a further six names. Since the work of du Buysson the following nomenclature changes and additions have been made: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Meade-Waldo (1911) described the species V. wilemani and Birula 0925) the species V. suprunenkoi. Bequaert (1931) defined the colour forms of V. crabro to include V. oberthuri dl Buysson. 1902. Bequaert (1934) defined the colour forms of V. luctuosa de Saussure, 1854 to include V. bellicosa de Saussure, 1853. Bequaert (1936) defined the colour forms of V. topica (Linnaeus, 1758) and V. affinis (Linnaeus, 1764) so that V. ducalis Smith, 1852, V. deusta Lepeletier, 1836, V. philippinensis de Saussure, 1853 and V. eulemoides du Buysson, 1905 became colour forms of V. tropica. Bequaert (1936) also considered V. magnifica Smith, 1852 to be a colour form of V. mandarirzla Smith, 1852. of V. simillima Smith, 1868 to include V. mongolica Andr6, 1884. Du Buysson (1904, 1905) had considered V. simillima to be a colour form of V. auraria Smith, 1852. Makino et al. (1981) fully defined the colour Sonan (1935) defined the colour forms forms of V. simillima. 7. Van der Vecht (1957) reconsideredV. luctuosa and was able to raise two of its colour forms to specific rank: V. bellicosa and V. multimaculata P€rez, 1910. B. Van der Vecht (1959) defined the colour forms of V. velutina Lepeletier, 1836 to include V. auraria. 9. Kojima (1982) showed that V. philippinensrs was a distinct species so reversing the opinion of Bequaert (1936). The consequence of the opinions from Meade-Waldo (1911) until Kojima (1982) was to reduce the 26 species of Vespa of du Buysson (1904,1905) to 23 species (Table 1). Many specimens of Vespa were examined from my own collection and from loans from many institutions and individuals. A full list of such loans is given in Archer (1989). 29th July, 1991 Vol. 127 (1991) ENTOMOLOGIST'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE r62 1 THE NUMBER OF SPECIES OF YESPA ACCORDING TO BUYSSON (1904-5), -FROM MEADE-WALDO (1911) TO KOJIMA (1982), AND ARCHER TABLE (PRESENT PAPER)* Kojima Archer Buysson Meade-Waldo to analis auraria affinis basalis basalis affinis analis auraria bellicosa (S - bellicosa, luctuosa, bellicosa basalis bicolor bellicosa binghami crabro bicolor multimaculata) bicolor binghami crabro cincta (S dybowskii binghami crabro fervida ducalis luctuosa mandarinia (S - mandarinia, soror) mocsaryana dybowskii fervida multimaculata orientalis mandarinia philippinensis simillima multimaculata orientalis philippinensis - affinis, tropica) deusta (D analis - tropica) ducalis dybowskii eulemoides (D - tropica) fervida magnifica (D - mandarinia) mandarinia mocsaryana mongolica (D - simillima) suprunenkoi (D - binghami) luctuosa mocsaryana nigrans (D - analis) tropica (S - ducalis, tropica) variabilis simillima orientalis velutina tropica oberthuri (D - crabro) (S - auraria, velutina) soror parallela (D - analis) philippinensis vivax variabilis walkeri (D - dybowskii) velutina variabilis wilentani (D - vivax) vivax 23 species 23 species velutina vivax walkeri (D - dybowskii) 26 species Names in brackets indicate splitting (S) or destination (D) of species. ENTOMOLOGIST'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE 163 RESULTS The current examination of specimens has led to the following opinions. 1. Birula (1925) described V. suprunenkoi f.rom two syntypes from Korea and Sackalin Island. Examination of the Korean syntype showed that it was the same as V. binghami as known by examining the syntypes of V. binghami from China (Yunnan) 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. and Burma (Tenasserim) (du Buysson, 1904, 1905). Meade-Waldo (1911) described V. wilemani from the holotype female collected in Taiwan (Formosa). An examination of this holotype showed it to be the same as the holotype of V. vivax, Smith, 1870. The holotype of V. vivax was examined and its description by Smith is in Horne & Smith (1870;. Colour forms of V. velutina called V. velutina auraria and V. velutina nigrithorax du Buysson, 1905 are sympatric in north-eastern India, Nepal, Assam, northern Burma and parts of western China but remain distinct colour forms so V. velutina auraria may be considered as having reached specific rank. Thus V. velutina should lose the colour forms V. velutina auraria and closely associated V. velutina pruthii van der Vecht, 1959 to re-establish the species V. auraria. The colour form V. mandarinia soror du Buysson, 1905 is sympatric with V. mandarinia magnifica in northern Laos and parts of southern China but remains a distinct colour form so it can be given specific rank asV. soror. The colour forms V. tropica ducalis Smith, 1852 and V. tropica pseudosoror van der Vecht, 1959 are sympatric with V. tropica haematodes Bequaert, 1936 and V. tropica leefrnansi van der Vecht, 1957 in North and South Vietnam and southern China but remain distinct colour forms. Thus V. tropica should lose the colour forms V. tropica ducalis, and closely associated V. tropica pseudosoror, V. tropica pulchra du Buysson, 1905, V. topica esakii Sonan, 1935 and V. tropica loochooensls Bequaert, 1936 to be grouped as V. ducalis. The description of V. walkeri du Buysson, 1905 is based on a female and a male from Chekiang, eastern China, which have been examined. V. dybowskli was described from a specimen taken in Siberia (Andr6, 1884) which could not be found. Du Buysson (1904, 1905) based his description of V. dybowskii on a female from Japan and separated it from V. walkeri by colour characteristics. Study of Andr6's description of V. dybowskii and of specimens from far-eastern U.S.S.R. and Japan showed that these specimens could not be separated from V. walkeri, not even by colour characteristics. As such V. walkeri should be considered a synonym of V. dybowskii. The above opinions maintain the number of species of Vespa at 23 species (Archer, Table 1). It is interesting to note that du Buysson (1904, 1905) also separated these 23 species except f.or V. soror which was confused with y. tropica as shown by van der Vecht (1957). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would especially like to thank J. van der Vecht particularly for the loan of specimens and Robin Edwards and Paul Williams who made some useful and helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. REFERENCES Andr6, E., 1884, Species des Hymlnopftres, II, Les Gudpes, Beaune, France. Archer, M.E., 1989. A key to the world species of the Vespinae (Hymenoptera). Parts I and 2. Res. Monog. College Ripon & York St John, no.2. Bequaert, J., 1931, The color forms of the common hornet, Vespa crabro, Konowia l0: 101-109; 1934, Les races de colorAtion de Vespa luctuosa de Saussure et de Polistes tenebricosus Lepeletier, Bull. r64 ENTOMOLOGIST'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE Mus. r. Hist. nat. Belg. lO:1-11; 1936, The common Oriental hornets, Vespatropicaand Vespa affinis, and their color forms, Treubia 15:329-351. Birula, A., 1925, Ueber die russischen Wespen und ihre geographie verbreitung, Arch. Naturgesch. 90A: BB-102. Buysson, R. du, 1904, Monographie des gudpes ou Vespa, Annls soc. ent. Fr.,72: 260-288;1905, Monographie des gu€pes ou Vespa, Annls Soc. ent. Fr.,73'.485-556, 565-634. Edwards, R., 1980, Social Wasps. Their biology and control, (The Rentokil Library) E,ast Grinstead. Horne, C. & Smith, F., 1870, Notes on the habits of some hymenopterous insects from the north-west Provinces of India. With an appendix containing descriptions of some new species of Apidae and Vespidae collected by Mr Horne by Frederick Smith, Trans. zool. Soc. Lond. 7: 16l-\96. Kojima, J., 1982, The genus Vespa in the Philippines (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), Kontytr 50: 434-444. Makino, S., Yamane, Sk., Ban, T. & Kunou, I., 1981, The Japanese Vespa simillima Smith, an important nuisance pest in urban areas (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), Jap. J. Sanit. Zool. 32:203-213. Meade-Waldo, G., 1911, New species of Diploptera in the Collection of the British Museum, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (8) 7: 9B-113. Sonan, H., 1935, On various species of Hymenopterous wasps, Taiwan Hakubutsugaku Kaiho 25:277-285. Vecht, J., van der, 1957, The Vespinae of the Indo-Malayan and Papuan areas (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), Zool. Verh. 34: 1-83; 1959, Notes on Oriental Vespidae, including some species from China and Japan (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), Zool. Meded. 36:205-232. The College of Ripon and York St John, Lord Mayor's Walk, York YO3 7EX. February 21th. 1990. Recent records of Lamprinodes saginatus (Gravenhorst) (Col., Staphylinidae) in Following my record of Lamprinodes saginatus (Grav.) in East Gloucester- (Entomologist's mon. Mag.,l24:72), the most recent consensus of opinion shire in 1986 (for which I thank Dr R.S. Key) demonstrates no upturn in the fortunes of this myrmecophilous species. The following recent records of the species are therefore of some interest,allwiththeant Myrmicarubra(L.): Westmancote,Worcs.,(SO93), 16.x.1988, grazed scrub-grassland, 175 m. O.D.; Freshfield, Lancs., (SD 20), I.v.1989, mobile foredunes, 1 m. O.D. (This is the first site at which I have observed L. saginatus other than singly; 9 were noted in an area of some 4^t.); Laverton, East Glos., (SP 03), f .iv.1990, grazed scrub-grassland, 240 m. O.D. Mr T. Eccles has recently (1990) encountered L. saginatus as a relict in species-rich grassland at Frodsham in Cheshire which like the Lancashire and Worcestershire records given here, is a new vice-county record. The Laverton specimen clung to the underside of a stone where, amongst the textural mosaic of ant bodies and legs, it was rendered invisible. Tachyporus chrysomelinus (L.) is closely similar in colour and pattern to L. saginatus, and is also occasionally myrmecophilous. P.F. WHITEHE,AD, Moor Leys, Little Comberton, Pershore, Worcs. WR10 3EP: -June 25th, 1990. Britain. Leopoldius signatus (Wiedemann) (Dipt., Conopidae) in North London (Middlesex). female Leopoldius signatus was found near unopened flowers of ivy on f .ix.1990 in -myAgarden. Middlesex is not included in the distribution recently given by Clements (1989, antea, 125: 153). As Clements correctly states, the "Herefordshire" in my Cono- pidae Handbook (1969, Handbk ldent. Br. Insects, l0(3a): 11) was a misprint for Hertfordshire. Regarding Hertfordshire, Verdcourt's record (1946, antea 82:305) was certainly the basis for the comment of Colyer & Hammond (1951 , Flies of the British Isles, London, p. I79) viz. "has been taken fairly recently in Hertfordshire . ." and in an earlier assessment of the distribution of this species (i955, antea9l'. 153) I also drew attention to Byerley's 1952 Hertfordshire record, from Watford. The only other Cono- I have found locally are Conops flavipes L. and C. quadrifasciatus DeGeer, both in Coppett's Wood Nature Reserve (TQ 276916) which abuts my garden. KENNETH G.V. SMITH, 70 Hollickwood Avenue, London N12 0LT: October 5th.1990. pidae