Ropalidia fita 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 fita

description: Ropalidia fita Polašek sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 9CD7C613-F758-4522-BC2A-8C822E147A87
Type specimens. Holotype: Lumwana, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM.0570). Lumwana, Mwinilunga, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM.0570). Paratypes: Kamina, DR Congo, 8♀♀ (RMCA); Upemba, DR Congo, 1♀ (CAS); Vlongne, Mozambique, 1♀ (OLM); Iringa, Tanzania, 1♀ (OLM); Iringua, 100 km NE, Tanzania, 1♀ (OLM); Mikindani, Tanzania, 1♂ (MFNB); Mikindani, Tanzania, 1♀ (MFNB); Chimola, Mpika, Zambia, 4♀♀ (OLM); Chingola, 40 km W, Zambia, 1♂ (OLM); Kapiri Mposhi, 60 km NW, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Kasempa, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Kasempa, Zambia, 1♀, 2♂♂ (OLM); Kasempa, 27 km N, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Kasempa, Mutumbwe, Zambia, 6♀♀, 1♂ (OLM); Kitwe, 60 km SE, Zambia, 3♀♀, 2♂♂ (OLM); Mkushi, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Mwinilunga, Zambia, 2♀♀ (OLM); Mwinilunga, 50 km E, Zambia, 7♀♀ (OLM); Ntambu, Zambia, 3♀♀ (OLM); Ntambu, Solwezi, Zambia, 6♀♀ (OLM); Serenje, 100 km SW, Zambia, 3♀♀ (OLM); Serenje, SW, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Solwezi, Zambia, 2♀♀ (OLM); Solwezi, 100 km W, Zambia, 2♀♀ (OLM); Solwezi, 150 km SW, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Solwezi, 27 km E, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Solwezi, 60 km W, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Solwezi, W, Zambia, 8♀♀ (OLM); Sungala, Zambia, 1♀ (OLM); Kenmaur, Zimbabwe, 1♀ (OLM); Nyagui, Zimbabwe, 1♀ (OLM).
The total number of examined specimens: 71♀♀, 7♂♂.
Diagnosis. Large species, similar to R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER), characterized by long pubescence and black tarsi, posteriorly constricted and globular T1; in contrast to R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER), this species has yellowish wings and weakly developed apical spot, brown or ferruginous scape dorsally in females and brown tip of terminal flagellomeres in males.
Description. Females. Wing length 9.4–12.3 mm. Colour. Basic colour brown to dark brown (Figure 26 aa). Clypeus brown or dark brown, with thin apical yellow line (Figure 26 bb, Figure 90a). Inner orbit with suffused yellow line that can be reduced or almost missing in some specimens. Mandible brown, sometimes with darker basal triangular spot, commonly with suffused yellow antero-basal spot or patch (Figure 90a). Frons, tempora and gena brown; sometimes gena with smaller yellow area; some specimens have black area around ocelli, which occasionally extends to gena. Mesosoma with combinations of brown and ferruginous, or in melanic specimens black and brown areas; mesosoma rarely with yellow markings, metasoma never (Figure 25a). Pronotum brown with lighter area underneath pronotal carina, completely brown or even dark brown-reddish. Mesonotum, mesopleuron and metapleuron brown or dark brown, sometimes black (Figure 25a). Area lateral to parapsidal furrows often reddish, sometimes faintly yellow. Scutellum and metanotum brown (less commonly ferruginous), sometimes with light brown posterior line. Propodeum dark brown or almost black (Figure 25a). All three coxa pairs variably coloured, but commonly coxa pairs I and II lightly coloured, coxa III dark brown. Femur and tibia brown or ferruginous, tarsi distally black (Figure 26 aa; tarsi are brownish in one specimen from Tanzania). T1 and T2 ferruginous, brown or dark brown, remaining segments equally coloured or occasionally terminal two or three segments somewhat lighter (Figure 26 aa). Wings yellowish, nervature light brown, stigma light brown, apical spot less developed (Figure 26 aa). Scape, pedicel, and proximal third to half of AF1 ferruginous or brown, distal part of AF1 black, remaining flagellomeres black (Figure 26 bb, Figure 90a).
Head. Clypeus wider than long, with comparatively stronger projecting apex, slightly curved upes and almost continuous transition of upes to lateral sides (OCA not developed; Figure 90a). Clypeus covered by large and evenly spaced punctures, shallower in more xanthic specimens. Entire clypeus covered by whitish underlying pubescence and longer protruding setae, shorter basally and longer apically, but less so than in R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER), which has about twice longer apical setae. Frons with well-defined, intermediately sized and evenly spaced punctures, retained on tempora and gena, except for impunctate area close to occipital carina. Frons, tempora and gena covered by protruding whitish setae, longer than ocellus diameter and commonly bent at upper quarter (similarly shaped as those in Figure 25b). Occipital carina strong and sinuate, gena about as wide as eye. Ocelli equidistant or barely acute forwards. Eye setae sparse and of intermediate length. Scape shorter than AF1, pedicel longer than wide, AF2 about 1.3–1.6 times as long as wide (Figure 90a).
Mesosoma. Mesosoma covered by long protruding whitish-yellowish setae, especially on mesonotum, scutellum and metanotum. Punctures large, shallow and well-defined, across entire mesosoma, including mesonotum and median half of tegulae. Scutellar carina developed, reaching about half or slightly more of scutellar length. Scutellum covered by longer setae with bent tips (Figure 25b). Metanotum commonly with well-developed median tooth, poorly developed in some specimens. Posterior impunctate triangle of metanotum very small, usually does not reach more than half of metanotum height, comparatively narrower than in other species. Metapleuron with impunctate centre. Propodeum variable; superior carina moderately developed or completely missing, inferior propodeal carina ranging from almost completely missing to well-developed, but never with translucent rim. Propodeal excavation with rather dull margins and straight lateral surface (Figure 25a).
Metasoma. T1 very widened centrally, even more than in R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER), with stronger posterior constriction (Figure 25a). Both T1/S1 and T2/S2 covered by very long protruding setae, protruding well beyond T2 lamella. T1 and T2 finely punctate, punctures more than diameter apart. T2 lamella brownish, without T2/S2 notch. Lamellar cut-out very uneven, T2 longer than S2, in contrast to symmetric second contour in R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER). T2 elongated, with over half of length parallel, in contrast to less than half of segment parallel in R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER).
Males. Wing length: 9.6–11.9 mm. Colour. Clypeus yellow, inner orbit and interantennal area merged in yellow, thin line in eye sinus; mandible black-brown, with antero-basal yellow area (reduced in some specimens; Figure 68 aa). Gena usually with small yellow triangular area. Frons brown, area around ocelli dark brown to black. Mesosoma with dark brown basal colour; pronotum with reddish or even suffused yellow line underneath pronotal carina, which occupies inferior pronotal angle almost entirely in more lightly coloured specimens. Mesonotum dark brown, with ferruginous markings lateral to parapsidal furrows. Mesopleuron dark brown with yellow area anteriorly, reddish area superiorly. Scutellum and metanotum dark brown (sometimes with posterior reddish line), propodeum dark brown. Coxa I and II usually yellow, III less commonly. Scape, pedicel and AF1 proximally brown, distal part of AF1 and remaining flagellomeres black dorsally; terminal flagellomere with somewhat brownish tip (Figure 61 bb). Antennal underside completely yellow; margin between brown upper side and yellow underside of scape in frontal view wide and gradual (Figure 68 aa), in contrast to R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER), with sharp margin (Figure 68a).
Head. Clypeus pentagonal, shallowly punctate (Figure 68 aa); lateral clypeal margins angled (opposed to mainly parallel in R. tomentosa GERSTAECKER). Frons with large and well-defined punctures; gena about half of eye width. Scape broadened, over two times wider than AF1 base (Figure 68 aa). AF1 longer than scape, AF2 1.4–1.9 times as long as wide. Tyloids originate at AF2 (or even AF1, as a thin hyaline line), with a maximum at AF7–9, where they occupy less than half of inner segment surface; their surfacematt. Terminal flagellomere long, tip obtuse, base with some pubescence (Figure 61 bb).
Mesosoma. Tarsal I spur not developed.
Metasoma. S7 weakly concave.
Male-female pairing strength: excellent, confirmed by the DNA analysis.
Nest. A single nest was observed on iNat (iNat:44166088). It has about 30 cells, with five female /workers, suggesting a comparatively smaller colony size. A few of the cells are longer than most, giving a nest somewhat uneven appearance. The cell wall is bicolored, with greyish and reddish layers. The opercula are greyish, with reddish nodules, without the free cell wall, and moderately arched above the cell margin. The nest is located on a twig.
Distribution. Most of the specimens originated from Zambia (86%), while several specimens were recorded from Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Tanzania and Mozambique.
Etymology. The name originates from Bemba, the commonest language in Zambia, denoting the root word for “dark”, fita, referring to the overall dark pattern of body colour; the name is treated as indeclinable.
Similar species. R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER); the extent of morphological and colour differences in males and females usually does not present a determination problem. Some specimens of R. fita sp. nov. may resemble R. dondo sp. nov., in which case the defining features include pubescence (shorter in R. dondo sp. nov.), while males are much easier to separate based on numerous morphological differences of clypeus and antenna shape. Some specimens may resemble R. perovici sp. nov. in general colour pattern; these two species are easily separated based on frons setae, which are longer and apically bent in R. fita sp. nov., while they are shorter and straight or evenly curved in R. perovici sp. nov.
Genetics. As many as 11 specimens were genotyped, suggesting a single genetic cluster (BOLD: ADN 9069), corresponding to a rather narrow geographical distribution of the examined specimens. The reason for such a large number of genotyped specimens was their very high success rate (while other species have often failed to sequence multiple specimens, this one managed to provide the usable result for almost all of the attempts). In addition, the separation of this species was doubtful in relation to R. dondo sp. nov. and R. guttatipennis (DE SAUSSURE), alongside several specimens that were phenotypically similar to R. tomentosa (GERSTAECKER).
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 83-85, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5626.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15325272