Distribution: Western Europe, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Uzbekistan, Kyrghyzstan, Kazakhstan, NE Mongolia, northern and mountain regions of China, Nepal, N Korea, Japan: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, North America (Kurzenko, 1995; Carpenter, Kojima, 1997). Russia: European part, north to Kola Peninsula, Arkhangelsk and river Pechora, south to Volgograd (exactly Sarepta) and Orenburg, North Caucasus, Siberia, Kamchatka, Amur basin, Primorye, Sahkalin, Kuriles: Urup, Iturup, Kunashir (Tobias, 1978; Kurzenko, 1995; Dubatolov, 1998). Additional information on the site of Prof. J.Kojima. Vespula rufa schrenckii (Radoszkowskii, 1961) occur in E Siberia, Russian Far East, Mongolia, Japan, Korea and NE China (Kurzenko, 1995).

Localities from collections of SZMN, ZIN, and literature: Russia: Orenburg Province (not shown on map!): Nature Reserve "Burtinskaya step" (by courtesy of V.A.Nemkov). Chelyabinsk Province: Kyshtym (ZIN collection), Miass; Kurgan Province: Zharnikovo, Temlyakovo (Ketovo district); Tyumen Province: "Wesufer des Obj-Busens am Flüsschen Jertysch" (Birula, 1930), Tyumen vic.; Khanty-Mansi Province: Berezov (Frieze, 1919), Oktyabr'skoe, Mitrokhino Pastbishche in the Surgut District (ZIN collection), Nature Reserve Yuganskii; Yamal-Nenets Province: Obdorsk [=Salekhard] (Birula, 1930), "Sees Wartscha-ty" [=Lake Varchato, ~125 km WSW from Labytnangi] (Birula, 1930); Omsk Province: Solyanoe (Cherlak district); Tomsk Province: Yagyl'yakh river (Krapivenskoe field), Ust'-Churul'ka and Ust'-Chizhapka (Kargasok district), Asino, [Ob'-Enisei Canal] (Birula, 1930, from map); Novosibirsk province: Kargat river mouth, Chernyi Mys (Ubinskoe district), Polovinnoe (Krasnozerskoe district), Novyi Sharap and Chingisy (Ordynskoe district), Pikhtovka (Kolyvan district), Novosibirsk, Moshkovo, Maslyanino; Altaiskii Krai: Barnaul, [Biisk, from map] (Birula, 1930); Altai Republic: Turochak, Artybash (Teletskoe Lake); Kemerovo Province: 25 km NW from Kemerovo, Shestakovo (Tisul' district), Kuzedeevo (Gornaya Shoriya); Khakasia: Abaza; Krasnoyarsk Province: [Krasnoyarsk] (Birula, 1930, from map), Verkhneimbatskoe (Birula, 1930); Taimyr: Ary-Mas (Nature Reserve Taimyrskii); Tuva: Khaibar (Turan district), Kara-Khol' (Samagaltai district); Irkutsk Province: 25 km from Irkutsk to Lake Baikal, Kunerma (N Baikal), Kirensk and Witim [Bodaibo] (Birula, 1930, from map); Buryatia: Kokorino (Ulan-Ude district); Chita Province: Chita, Nizhnii Tsasuchei, Nerchinsk (Birula, 1930), Kungara on Gazimur river, Budyumkan village, river Budyumkan 5 km from the mouth; Yakutia: river Pilka, Olekminsk (Birula, 1930), Yakutsk vic.: Bestyakh (Birula, 1930), "Mündung des Flusses Aldan Sommerflecken Chamurgan-Albyn" (Birula, 1930), river Tukulan headwater (Birula, 1930), 232 km of the road from Khandyga to Magadan, 40 km low from Srednekolymsk, "Flecken Jegorjev" and "auf dem Wege zwischen Werchne- und Nishnekolymsk" (Birula, 1930); Magadan Province: Aborigen Mt. (Upper Kolyma); Chukotka: Markovo (Birula, 1930), 30 km from Krasneno; Amur Province/Yakutia: "Jablonovoi-Gebirgsrücken, Amur Province: Zeya Nature Reserve; Tukuringra-Gebirge (27.V 1918 Koschantschikov leg." [=Stanovoi Range, river Dzhelinda] (Birula, 1930)); "Nebenfluss Dshalinda, Dorf Reinovo" (Birula, 1930), "Station Urkan, am Nebenflusse Urkan" (Birula, 1930), Blagoveshchensk, Malaya Sazanka (12 km SSW from Svobodnyi), Nature Reserve Khinganskii (Kurzenko, 1992); Jewish Province: Bastak Nature Reserve; Khabarovsk Province: Kiselevka, Arkhangelskoe (Amur river mouth), "Ajan" (Birula, 1930), "Liman des Flusses Amur, Kap Oserpach" (Birula, 1930), Nikolaevsk-na-Amure (Khabarovsk Local Museum), Khabarovsk (Birula, 1930; also in the Khabarovsk Museum), Chegdomyn; Primorskii Krai: 20 km N from Chernyshevka, Gusevskii Mine (7 km NE from Zanadvorovka), Furugel'm Is.; Kamchatka: "Uallo-Bucht", "Mündung des Flusses Kitschiga", "Korff-Busen, Bucht Sibirj" (Birula, 1930), "Westufer der Halbinsel" (Birula, 1930), "Umgebung des Dorfes Kljutschevskoje" (Birula, 1930), Kamaki (Birula, 1930), "Uschaki" (Birula, 1930), Petropavlovsk (Birula, 1930), river Ozernaya mouth (ZIN collection), settlement "Km 47th" (on the road Krapivnaya-Esso); Sakhalin: without locality (Suprunenko, ZIN collection), Korsakov (Matsumura, 1911), Onory (Kono, Tamanuki, 1928), Konuma (Novoaleksandrovsk), Dolinsk, Ozerskii, Novikovo, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and suburbs, Tymovsk, Lake Tunaicha in 18 km from Pikhtovyi, Bay Severnyi, Moskalvo, Cape Lavernon in Tonino-Anivskii Peninsula, river Bakhula in 40 km E from Sokol. Poronaisk, 20 km SE from Il'inka, Krasnogorsk, 50 km SE from Uglegorsk, 5 km N from Tymovskoe (Kurzenko, 2004), Kirillovo, Korsakov, 2-nd Pad'; Southern Kuriles: Shikotan, Kunashir: Yuzhno-Kuril'sk, Iturup: Kuibyshevo, between Kuibyshevo and Kasatka, Kasatka, between Kuibyshevo and Kuril'sk, between Kuril'sk and Reidovo, Reidovo (Kuwayama, 1967). Kazakhstan: Uralsk Province: Yanvartsevo on the river Ural (ZIN collection); Kokchetau Province: Borovoe (ZIN collection); Semipalatinsk Province: [Semipalatinsk, from map] (Birula, 1930). Mongolia: Central aimak: "Örtlichkeit Süzsukte" (Birula, 1930), near Ulan-Baator (Giordani Soika, 1970, 1976). China: Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province (Lee, 1986), Mandchourie, région du lac Hanka (du Buysson, 1905).

Note: the species was recorded also from the southern part of the Khabarovsk Province (Kurzenko, 1995).

Taxa described from Asian Russia and adjacent territories:
Vespa schrenckii Radoszkowski, 1861, Horae Soc. Ent. Ross. 1: 84, figs. 4-5 - "Amur".
Vespa sibirica André, 1884, Spec. Hym. Europe Algér. 2: 599 - "Sibérie".
Vespa rufa var. intermedia du Buysson, 1905, Ann. Soc. Ent. France 73: 499 (key), 591 - "Mandchourie, région du lac Hanka", etc.
?Vespula yichunensis Lee, 1986, Sinozool. 10 (4): 202, 203, 206, fig. 3 - "Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province".

References
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Birula, A. (1930) Über die russischen Wespen und ihre geographische Verbreitung (Vierter Beitrag). - Zoologische Anzeiger 87: 127-143.
Buysson R. du. (1904-1905) Monographie des guepes du Vespa. - Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (1904) 72: 260-288, pl. 3-4; (1905) 73: 485-634, pl. 5-15.
Carpenter, J.M. & Kojima, J. 1997. Checklist of the species in the subfamily Vespinae (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Vespidae). - Nat. Hist. Bull. Ibaraki Univ. 1: 51-92.
Dubatolov, V.V. 1998. Social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae, Vespinae) of Siberia in the collection of Siberian Zoological Museum. - Far Eastern Entomologist 57: 1-11.
Dubatolov, V.V. 2011. Social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae, Vespinae) of the Bastak Nature Reserve (Jewish Autonomous Province, Amur basin). - Amurian Zoological Journal 3 (1).
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Malikova E.I., Dolya M.A. 2008. [Data on social wasps (Vespidae) and bees (Apidae) from Bastak Nature Reserve] // Priroda zapovednika “Bastak” [Nature of Bastak Nature Reserve]. Blagoveshchensk 5: 77-80. (In Russian).
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