Ropalidia copelandi 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 copelandi

description: Ropalidia copelandi Polašek sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 4D97FF7A-DFD2-4D0A-A840-F1C550A053B5
Type specimens. Holotype: Kasaala, Kenya (ICIPE.17). Paratypes [81♀♀, 1♂.]; Ukasi hills, Kenya, 3♀♀ (ICIPE.14, ICIPE.14b, ICIPE.14c); Timbwani beach, Mombasa, Kenya, 1♀ (SNMB35); Voi (Tsavo), Kenya, 33 ♀♀ (OLM); Mwingi, Kenya, 22♀♀ (OLM); Caschei, Ethiopia, 3♀♀ (MSNV.095-7); Baidoa, Somalia, 1♀ (MSNV.098); Taita hills, Kenya, 4♀♀ (CAS); Isioko, Kenya, 1♀ (CAS); Korogwe, Tanzania, 3♀♀ (CAS); Voi (Tsavo), Kenya, 1♂ (OLM.0152). The total number of examined specimens: 82♀♀, 1♂.
Diagnosis. Very lightly coloured species with numerous yellow markings on the body, including predominantly yellow pronotum, thick posterior yellow band on T2, and large yellow markings on scutellum and metanotum.
Description. Females. Wing length: 9.2–10.9 mm. Colour. Basal colour ferruginous, with plenty of yellow colour on the body (Figure 29a). Yellow areas on head include clypeus (rarely with bilateral ferruginous basal spot), proximal half of mandibles, most of frons (except two perpendicular ferruginous lines), large spot on interantennal area, gena on both external and internal surface and occasionally two small accessory patches lateral and behind posterior ocelli (Figure 30a). Yellow markings on the mesosoma include most of the pronotum (sometimes with bilateral dorsal remaining ferruginous area), large yellow spot on mesopleuron laterally, mesopleuron anteriorly, medial half of tegula, scutellum and metanotum yellow (Figure 86a). Coxa I almost entirely yellow, median half of anterior mesopleuron surface yellow, coxa II with postero-lateral quadrant yellow; femur and tibia I and II with variable yellow patches (Figure 86b). Metasoma with numerous yellow markings; posterior bands on T1–6 and S2–6 (Figure 29a); notably, females often have bilateral yellow triangular spots on S6. T2 with two additional yellow diamond-shaped spots that are often merged with posterior band (Figure 86a). Wings transparent, nervature brown, stigma yellow, apical spot greyish (Figure 29a). Antenna ferruginous above, yellowish underneath; scape yellow underneath, ferruginous above (Figure 30a).
Head. Clypeus conspicuously wider than long, upes curved, OCA present, but rather obtuse (Figure 30a). Clypeal punctures very weak, barely visible basally. Inner orbit with poorly defined, sparse punctures close to eye margin. Frons and vertex with poorly defined shallow punctures, tempora with more defined, gena with large, well-defined, shallow punctures. Posterior half of gena with less defined and sparse punctures. Gena slightly wider than eye. Ocellar triangle equidistant. Eye setae very short or absent. Scape about as long as AF1, AF2 about as long as wide or slightly wider.
Mesosoma. Mesosoma finely punctate; mesopleuron with smaller puncture sizes, more than one radius apart. Mesosoma covered by short yellowish pubescence. Punctures on mesonotum shallow, sparser lateral to parapsidal furrow. Metapleuron sparsely and shallowly punctate. Scutellum rounded, with weakly developed median carina, sometimes reduced to brown line that does not even protrude from scutellum surface. Metanotum with posterior impunctate area and somewhat developed median tooth (reduced in some specimens). Propodeum resembles R. guttatipennis in general appearance; superior carina less developed (or occasionally almost missing); striations very fine, somewhat stronger on lateral surface. Inferior propodeal carina usually not developed (or barely visible as minute enlargement of one of terminal propodeal striae; Figure 86a).
Metasoma. Tergum 1 similar to R. guttatipennis, but commonly slightly wider (Figure 86a); posterior edge with few larger puncta. T2 with parallel side and minimal or no posterior constriction (Figure 86a); T2/S2 suture usually shorter than half of the segment length. T2 lamella shorter, whitish or yellowish, with visible interdigitations and an uneven cut-out that is more excavated ventrally.
Males resemble females in colour pattern. Wing length: 8.6 mm. Colour. Face predominantly yellow, gena yellow; tempora, frons and vertex ferruginous (Figure 62a). Mesosoma similarly coloured to females, but with more yellow—entire anterior surface of mesopleuron yellow, merged with spot lateral on mesopleuron (Figure 86c). Coxa I and II yellow, III with yellow patched; femur I and II anteriorly yellow, femur III with yellow patches; tibia I and II with yellow patches (Figure 86c). All metasomal segments with yellow bands, except S7, which is ferruginous with bilateral yellow spots. Antenna similarly coloured to R. guttatipennis (DE SAUSSURE): basal colour dorsally ferruginous, distal segments (AF5–AF10) blackened from above, terminal flagellomere bicolorous, proximally black, distally yellow (Figure 61a). Entire underside yellow, tyloids orange (Figure 61b).
Head. Clypeus broader than long, with strongly convex central surface. Upes curved, OCA not developed (Figure 62a). Clypeal punctures very weak, obscured by fine silvery pubescence and short protruding setae. Inner orbit with poorly defined, sparse punctures close to eye margin. Frons and vertex with poorly defined shallow punctures, tempora with more defined, gena with a few large, well-defined punctures. Gena about 0.8 times of eye width. Ocellar triangle equidistant. Eyes asetose (Figure 62a). Scape widened, slightly shorter than AF1, AF2 slightly wider than long (Figure 62a). Tyloid barely visible on AF1, but already very wide on AF2; their surface matt, and they occupy most of inner segment surface for AF2–AF10. Terminal flagellomere about 1.5 times as long as AF10, equally curved (Figure 61a).
Mesosoma. Tarsal I spur not developed.
Metasoma. S7 weakly concave (Figure 86c).
Distribution. Kenya; several specimens were also recorded in Ethiopia (three specimens), Tanzania (one specimen), and Somalia (one specimen).
Etymology. The name is the Latin genitive of the surname Copeland, and refers to Robert Copeland, from ICIPE in Nairobi, Kenya, who collected the holotype specimen, approved the first loan and provided critical support at the earliest stage of this revision.
Similar species. No other African species has a similar colour pattern, so determination is straightforward. The closest match may be R. mangoflava sp. nov., which is endemic and does not present a problem in determination due to morphological and colour pattern differences.
Colour pattern. This species appears to be involved in Mullerian mimicry with an undescribed species of Polistes from Somalia (Supplementary material).
Genetic data. Three specimens were successfully genotyped, alongside four more obtained from the BOLD database (that originate from the same ICIPE collection). All specimens are genetically very homogenous, corresponding to a single COI cluster (BOLD: ACH0946). The use of 28s rDNA also supports the notion of a homogenous population, which is in both accounts within the broader sense of guttatipennis cluster of 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 76-77, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5626.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15325272