Parapolybia tinctipennis Cameron 1900
Creators: name: Saito-Morooka, Fuki
name: Nguyen, Lien T. P.
name: Kojima, Jun-Ichi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Vespidae
Parapolybia
Parapolybia tinctipennis

description: Parapolybia tinctipennis (Cameron, 1900), stat. resurr.
(Figs 36–40, 79, 88)
Icaria tinctipennis Cameron 1900: 503, ♀, designated here, “Khasia Hills” [India] [OUM]. Parapolybia indica tinctipennis: van der Vecht 1966: 29; Das & Gupta 1984: 429 (catalog); 1989: 179, fig. 30a, map 27 (distribution).
Diagnosis. This species can be distinguished from other Parapolybia species by dark body color, by large body size, by strong striation on the propodeum, by strongly swollen T1 posteriorly.
Material examined. LECTOTYPE of Icaria tinctipennis Cameron, 1900 (designate here, see Remarks). INDIA: 1 ♀, Khasia [Meghalaya] [OUM]; PARALECTOTYPES of Icaria tinctipennis, 4 ♀, Khasia, G.A.J. Rothney [OUM]. 1 ♀, Khasia [BMNH]. Other material. CHINA: Fujian, 1 ♀ (AMNH), Yen-ping [26°38'42''N, 118°10'25''E], 8.ix.1917, Ac.5148. VIETNAM: Bac Kan: 4 ♀ (IUNH), 4 ♀ (IEBR), Kim Hy NP, Lang San, Na Ri, 22°14'N, 106°05'E, 600–700 m, 4.viii.2012, L.T.P. Nguyen & IED-c, Nest#VN-NE2012-Pp-01; 1 ♀ (IEBR), Kim Hy NP, Yen Binh, Na Ri, 200 m, 4.vi.2014, L.T.P. Nguyen, D.D. Tran & D.D. Nguyen; Phu Tho: 3 ♀ (IUNH / IEBR), Xuan Son NP, 600 m, 16.vi.2004, L.T.P. Nguyen; Vinh Phuc: 1 ♀ (IUNH / IEBR), Tam Dao, 1000 m, 8.ix.2000, L.T.P. Nguyen; 8 ♀ (IUNH / IEBR), Tam Dao NP, 800 m, 1–4.vii.2003, L.T.P. Nguyen; 3 ♀ (IUNH / IEBR), Tam Dao, 800 m, 1.vii.2003, L.T.P. Nguyen; 1 ♀ (IEBR), Tam Dao, 900–1200 m, 30.vii–3.viii.2012, D.T. Tran; 1 ♀ (IEBR), Tam Dao, 10.v.2013, D.D. Nguyen; Ha Tinh: 1 ♀ (AMNH), Huong Son, 18°21'N, 106°15'E, 600 m, 22.IV–1.V.1998, Malaise trap, J.M. Carpenter et al.; 4 ♀ (AMNH), Huong Son, 18°22'N, 106°13'E, Malaise trap, J.M. Carpenter et al. [2 ♀, 15–21.iv. 1998, 600 m; 2 ♀, 5.v. 1998, 900 m]. LAOS: 1 ♀ (BPBM), Pakkading, Borikhane Prov., 22.iii.1965, native collector.
Redescription. FEMALE. Body length 16.5–19.5 mm; fore wing length 15.5–17.0 mm. Head in frontal view 1.1 × as wide as high (Fig. 36). Gena developed, swollen laterally, in frontal view of head visible in its nearly entire height (Fig. 36), in lateral view slightly narrow than eye (Fig. 37). Ocelli close to each other (Fig. 38); both POD and distance between anterior and posterior ocelli shorter than Od; anterior ocellus diameter 0.29–0.33 mm, slightly larger than that posterior ocellus (0.26–0.30 mm); OOD 2.0 × as large as Od. Propodeum with prominantly strong transverse striae (sometimes only slightly weaker). T1 relatively short and strongly swollen posterodorsally (4.0– 4.9 mm long, Figs 39–40), 2.6 × as long as its maximum height, 2.4 × longer than its own maximum width. T2 weakly concave sublaterally.
Color. Body ground color brown to dark reddish brown (Fig. 79), usually with following black and yellow markings (sometimes entirely dark reddish brown): black: teeth of mandible, apical margin of clypeus, central spot on clypeus, anterior margin of scutum, groove on metapleuron, dorsolateral lines on pronotum, T2–T6; yellow: central spot on pronotal collar, paired basal spots on T2 and T3 [not confirmed in the lectotype due to the basal part of T3 being covered by T2]. Antenna brown to yellow, usually darker beneath. Wings brown, semi-hyaline.
MALE. Unknown.
Distribution. India (Meghalaya), China (Fujian, new record), Vietnam (North Vietnam, new record), Laos (new record).
Remarks. Despite that Cameron (1900) neither mentioned nor gave any indication that he examined more than one specimen, his description of Icaria tinctipennis was certainly based on several female specimens as mentioned by van der Vecht (1966) “the typical specimens in the Oxford University Museum … a female of this form in the British Museum, belonging to the type series (ex coll. Cameron).” (p. 29). The female specimen in the OUM labeled “ Icaria tinctipennis Cam, type Khasia”, “ TYPE HYME 2073 Icaria tinctipennis Cameron, 1900 HOLOTYPE ♀” “HOPE ENT COLL., OUMNH” and “ type no. 2073” is herewith designated as the lectotype of Icaria tinctipennis Cameron, 1900. Other four female specimens (labeled “Khasia Coll. G.A.J. Rothney” and “G.A.J. Rothney Coll. Donated 1910”) in the OUM and one female specimen (labeled “1♀ Icaria tinctipennis Cam Khasia ” “P. Cameron Coll. 1914-110” and “Para-type”) in the BMNH are paralectotypes.
Based only on the presence of the complete female occipital carina, van der Vecht (1966) “Provisionally … regard tinctipenis as a subspecies of P. indica ” (P. 29), but he also mentioned that “It would be desiable to compare the male of this form with that of typical indica.” (P. 29) and “the status of the two forms … fulvinerva and tinctipennis is doubtful; they may represent different species, but it seems as well possible that they are castes or colour variations of one and the same species” (P. 26). No male specimens were available to us, but we have concluded that P. tinctipennis can be diagnosed as a good species by the combination of the following characters: dark body color, large body size, strong striation on the propodeum and the posteriorly strongly swollen T1.
description: Published as part of Saito-Morooka, Fuki, Nguyen, Lien T. P. & Kojima, Jun-Ichi, 2015, Review of the paper wasps of the Parapolybia indica species-group (Hymenoptera: Vespidae, Polistinae) in eastern parts of Asia, pp. 215-235 in Zootaxa 3947 (2) on pages 223-225, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3947.2.5, http://zenodo.org/record/232726