278) Vespa tropica (Linnaeus, 1758)

Sphex tropica Linnaeus, 1758: 1-517 . Vespa cincta Fabricius, 1775: 362 .

Vespa eulemoides Buysson, 1905 (1904) : 491, 530. Type data: Female, MSNG. Type locality: Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India.

Vespa tropica tropica; Bequaert, 1936: 328, key, des., fig.

Vespa tropica haematodes Bequaert, 1936: 338 . Type data: Holotype female, MCZ. Type locality: Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Vespa tropica leefmansi van der Vecht, 1957: 19 . Type data: Holotype female, RMNH. Type locality: Solok, Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia.

Material examined. INDIA: Andhra Pradesh: Guntur, 13.xii.2006, 1 ♀, Coll. Naveen Kumar. Uttarakhand: Bhimtal, 13.xi.2016, 2 ♀, Coll. Ankita Gupta. Karnataka: Bengaluru, 11.xii.2014, 1♀, Coll. Umesh ; Nandi Hills, 17.viii.2017, 2 ♀, Coll. Sandesh Gawas ; Sangam, 13.vii.2018, 1 ♀, Coll. Ankita Gupta; IIHR , 06.xi.2012, 1 ♀, Coll. P. M. Viyolla.

Distribution. India:Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh (new record), Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal. Elsewhere: Bhutan; Brunei; Cambodia; China; Indonesia; Laos; Malaysia; Myanmar; Nepal; Pakistan; Philippines; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Thailand; Vietnam. (van der Vecht 1959c, Das & Gupta 1984 & 1989, Jonathan et al. 1996, Jonathan & Kundu 2003, Gusenleitner 2006, Kundu et al. 2006, Nguyen et al. 2006b, Girish Kumar & Sharma 2014b & 2015b, Dorji et al. 2017b, Sheikh et al. 2017, Gawas et al. 2019).