Vespa tropica haematodes Bequaert, 1936

Sheikh, Altaf Hussain, Kumar, P. Girish, Thomas, Moni & Bhandari, Rita, 2017, Taxonomic studies on Vespid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea: Vespidae) of Dumna Nature Park, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 117 (3), pp. 198-198 : 198-

9. Vespa tropica haematodes Bequaert, 1936

1936. Vespa tropica var. haematodes Bequaert , 336, 338. Holotype: Female , India: “Kooloo” ( MCZ).

Diagnosis: Sterile female: Body rather large and thick, covered with strong and stiff hairs; clypeus coarsely punctate, apical margin hairy; apical margin of clypeus with broad margination, its apical-lateral angle triangular; lower vertical area of pronotum with strong transverse ridges near pronotal pit.

Colour Description: Head and antenna reddish brown; pronotum dorsally and scutellum reddish brown; mesoscutum anteriorly with two short reddish brown lines; legs partly reddish brown; gaster blackish brown to black except T2 yellow with slight brown area basally and S2 yellow with large brown area basally.

Size (H+M+T1+T2): 20.5 mm.

Material examined: INDIA: Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur district, Dumna Nature Park , 1♀, 26.xi.2015, Coll. Altaf Hussain Sheikh.

Distribution: India: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh (new record), Odisha, Pondicherry, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal. Elsewhere: China, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam.