Abstract / Introduction / Summary:
The social wasp genus Vespula Thomson, 1869 was recorded from Okinawa-jima, Central Ryukyus, Japan for the first time. A queen wasp was collected on 15 May 2021 in northern part of Okinawa-jima, and was identified as Vespula flaviceps (Smith, 1870) based on structural and color characters. It quite differs from the Japanese subspecies V. f. lewisii (Cameron, 1903) in having abundant yellowish markings on the body in contrast to whitish markings in the latter. Although still inconclusive, it was most probably introduced from some part of eastern Asia where yellow-maculat- ed forms of the species occur.
