First record of Vespa crabro Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in western North America with a review of recorded species of Vespa Linnaeus in Canada Author Bass, Amber Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K 1 A 0 C 6, Canada Author Needham, Karen Spencer Entomological Collection, Beaty Biodiversity Museum, University of British Columbia, 2212 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V 6 T 1 Z 4, Canada Author Bennett, Andrew M. R. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K 1 A 0 C 6, Canada text Zootaxa 2022 2022-06-15 5154 3 305 318 journal article 77238 10.11646/zootaxa.5154.3.4 51708a96-c3e5-4455-a91b-edd125411445 1175-5326 6671183 847C3801-A683-4BBE-8A2E-93B8452E069F Vespa simillima Smith Fig. 4 The specimen identified as Vespa simillima ( Fig. 4 ) was re-confirmed morphologically using the key of Smith-Pardo et al. (2020). Both primer pairs were successful in amplifying the COI gene, resulting in a 596 bp assembled sequence (GenBank Accession OL702714 ). A GenBank BLAST found this sequence was 99.83% identical (one base pair different) to a Vespa simillima specimen from South Korea (Accession KY172037 ), with an E value of 0.0 and bit-score of 1096. Including the Canadian specimen, there are 28 sequences of V. simillima in the BOLD database from South Korea (16), Japan (9), Russia : Primorsky Krai (1) and one of unstated country ( KF933080 ) published in Perrard et al. (2013) that was collected in Japan (Perrard, pers. comm.). All sequences are grouped in a single BIN (ACB8610) with a maximum sequence divergence between species of 1.77%. Material examined : CANADA : 1 ♀ , British Columbia , Shawnigan Lake , viii.1977 , collected live, A. Rumsby , ENT991-24452 ( RBCM ) ( Fig. 4 ) ; JAPAN : 2 ♀ , Hokkaido , Tomakomai , 25.viii.1983 , M. Ito ( CNC ) . Distribution : Southeast Asia including Myanmar , parts of China , eastern Russia , Korea , and Japan , adventive in northwest Nearctic ( Cannings 1989 ). Diagnosis : Vespa simillima can be distinguished from other Vespa species that have been recorded in Canada by a combination of the following characters: 1) length of gena less than 1.6× length of eye at midheight in lateral view ( Fig. 4B ), 2) pretegular carina incomplete, not spanning the height of the pronotal lobe, 3) female clypeus with punctures medially shallow, separated by one puncture diameter or more ( Fig. 4C ); 4) male metasomal sterna 6–7 with posterior margin deeply emarginate medially.