Ropalidia amanhii Polasek 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Polašek, Ozren
name: Onah, Ikechukwu
name: Kehinde, Tope
name: Rojo, Veronica
name: Noort, Simon Van
name: Carpenter, James M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Vespidae
Ropalidia
Ropalidia amanhii

description: Ropalidia amanhii Polašek, sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 128E49A5-D5EB-4596-A1D8-601B91299E15
Type specimens. Holotype: Chake Chake, Pemba Island, Tanzania, 1♀ (OLM. VA342). Paratype: Kwamgumi forest, Tanzania, 1♀ (SNM). The total number of examined specimens: 2♀♀.
Diagnosis. The defining characteristics include non-clavate antenna, rounded and shallow propodeal excavation, weakly developed upper propodeal carina, weak or intermediate striations and moderately developed inferior propodeal carina, in combination with elongated T1 and wide clypeus.
Description. Female. Wing length: 8.4–8.8 mm. Colour. Basal colour brown or dark brown. Clypeus yellow with transverse dark brown line or brown with apical yellow line. Inner orbit with large yellow areas (Figure 32 bb) or reduced to a small yellow triangle close to clypeus (Figure 79a). Vertex darker than frons, mandible with yellow antero-basal spot, gena brown, or with small yellow spot. Pronotum basally reddish-brown, with thin yellow line underneath carina and thinner yellow line at posterior margin (similar to Figure 31c). Mesonotum darker with two thin reddish lines (Figure 79c). Mesopleuron dark brown to black (with yellow patch in holotype), metapleuron dark brown to black. Scutellum and metanotum brown-reddish, propodeum black with reddish line along lateral margin (Figure 32 aa). Legs brown, in holotype with gradually smaller yellow markings on coxa; femur and tibia brown, tarsi darker, almost black (Figure 79b). T1 brownish, T2 with yellow(-whitish) posterior band (Figure 79b). Wings transparent, anterior portion yellowish, stigma bicolorous, anterior half brown and opaque, posterior yellowish and semi-transparent (Figure 79c). Antenna black dorsally, underside of scape and pedicel (as far as AF1) ferruginous, terminal few flagellomeres reddish ventrally.
Head. Clypeus about as wide as long or slightly wider (Figure 32 bb, Figure 79a), upes straight, enclosing variably wide inner orbit area (wider in holotype, narrower in paratype), oculo-clypeal angle developed, but obtuse; clypeal apex longer. Juxtamandibular lobes less developed (Figure 32 bb). Clypeus base with defined punctures, apical half with larger craters with less defined edges. Inner orbit impunctate, with strong surface depression towards antennal socket. Frons punctate and covered by straight yellowish-golden setae, shorter than ocelli diameter (as opposed to R. tomentosa GERSTAECKER). Gena covered by gradually shallowing punctures, retained even in posterior part as poorly defined craters, in contrast to R. africana (CAMERON) stat. rev., which has shiny and impunctate posterior half of gena). Occipital carina weakly sinuate, almost straight. Ocellar triangle equidistant. Head covered by whitish or yellowish pubescence and protruding setae. Eyes covered by intermediate-length setae (Figure 32 bb). Scape about equally long or somewhat longer than AF1; AF2 about 1.2–1.4 times as long as wide, compared to 1.5–1.9 in R. africana (CAMERON) stat. rev.
Mesosoma. Pronotum with large and shallow punctures, which merge and create network close to inferior pronotal angle. Mesonotum with small and shallow punctures, lateral mesopleuron with large and shallow ones. Metapleuron with small and scattered punctures close to anterior edge, central and posterior part impunctate. Scutellum flattened, with intermediate-sized punctures and weakly developed median carina that reaches about half of its length. Metanotum rounded, without median tooth. Propodeal excavation shallow, without strong margins or carina (Figure 32 aa). Striations of propodeal excavation weak, but stronger than in R. africana (CAMERON) stat. rev. Inferior propodeal carina developed, thick, without translucent apical hyaline rim (Figure 32 aa).
Metasoma. T1 elongated and slender, dorsally mildly swollen (similar to Figure 31b); proximal half with weak and small punctures, distal with larger and more defined punctures. T2 shorter, rounded in dorsal view, almost without parallel sides. T2 and S2 with directional punctures, which turn to regular punctures close to lamella. T2/S2 suture of variable length (varying from third of T2 length to nearly entire length), T2 lamellar notch either poorly developed or not visible at all. T2 lamella of intermediate length, with developed or very well developed interdigitations.
Male. Unknown.
Etymology. The species is named after the AMANHI research grant of the World Health Organization, which funded the trip during which the holotype specimen was collected.
Distribution. North-Eastern Tanzania.
Similar species. R. africana (CAMERON) stat. rev., R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER) and possibly even an occasional specimen of R. aethiopica (DU BUYSSON) with less developed propodeal striations. The separation features include metapleuron punctures (nearly impunctate in R. africana), ocellar triangle (acute anteriorly in R. africana) and longer eye setae (very short or absent in R. africana), and shorter general pubescence pattern (as opposed to long in R. tomentosa GERSTAECKER). Problems can be expected in separation from R. aethiopica (DU BUYSSON); inferior propodeal carina of R. amanhii sp. nov. is more developed, with an underlying tissue elevation (as opposed to acute and sharp inferior propodeal carina in R. aethiopica). In addition, the area lateral to parapsidal furrows is reddish in R. amanhii sp. nov., and almost uniquely of similar colour to the rest of mesonotum in R. aethiopica (DU BUYSSON).
Genetics. Both the holotype and paratype were successfully genotyped, suggesting proximity of the mainland and island populations, yielding a single BIN (BOLD:ADM2228). The position of this species was relatively basal, close to R. nobilis GERSTAECKER, R. unidentata GIORDANI SOIKA and R. fita sp. nov. 28s rDNA suggested a separate cluster, confirming proximity to the previously mentioned three species.
description: Published as part of Polašek, Ozren, Onah, Ikechukwu, Kehinde, Tope, Rojo, Veronica, Noort, Simon Van & Carpenter, James M., 2025, Revision of the mainland African species of the Old World social wasp genus Ropalidia Guérin-Méneville 1831 (Hymenoptera; Vespidae), pp. 1-142 in Zootaxa 5626 (1) on pages 63-64, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5626.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15325272