A CHECKLIST OF ROPALIDIINI WASPS (HYMENOPTERA: VESPIDAE; POLISTINAE) IN INDOCHINA

Abstract – As a basis for intensive study of the taxonomy and biogeography of Ropalidiini wasps in Indochina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae), a checklist of Ropalidiini wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is presented. A total of 57 Ropalidiini species and subspecies belonging to three genera from Indochina are listed, together with information of the type material deposited in the Natural History Collection, Ibaraki University, Japan (IUNH) and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR). References of their distribution in Indochina are also provided.

The study of vespid wasps is necessary to know their life history, habits and habitat, as well as their role in the ecosystem.Vespid wasps are beneficial insects in that they attack caterpillars and other insects, including many pests, to feed their young (Das and Gupta, 1989;Goulet and Huber, 1993).Despite their nuisance aggressiveness and deadly stings, such foraging habits allow them to be effective predators of insect pests in biological control programs (Iwata, 1967;Gould and Jeanne, 1984).In addition, because they are at the top-position in a food web of terrestrial arthropods (or even animals) as well as visiting various flowers for nectar as their own energy source, they are pollinators of many plants ( Kojima, 1993;Carpenter and Wenzel, 1999;Khuat et al., 2004).These considerations suggest that vespid wasps play important roles in an ecosystem, and can be good bioindicators for environmental conditions and/or habitat perturbation (Itô, 1984;Carpenter, 1991).
Indochina is a peninsula in Southeast Asia lying on the southeast slope of the Himalayas, one of the centers of biological divergence of the world.In Indochina four of the six vespid subfamilies occur.They are Eumeninae, Stenogastrinae, Polistinae and Vespinae, of which Polistinae is one of the largest subfamilies with two tribes, Polistinae and Ropalidiini.Ropalidiini is an endemic tribe of the Old World with 269 species in four genera.In Indochina, however, the tribe only occurs with three genera, Ropalidia, Parapolybia and Polybioides.A catalog of species in the Polistinae tribe Ropalidiini in the world was presented by Kojima and Carpenter in 1997.However, that work is near 20 years old, and a large number of species has been described since then.Nicolas et al. (2011) showed that 18 species of the tribe Ropalidiini occurred in on the Malay Peninsula.In the Indonesian Archipelago, the number of species and subspecies of this tribe were 87 (Hari Nugroho et al., 2011).In Vietnam, the number of species was 19 (Nguyen at al., 2006b).As the basis for intensive study on the species-level biodiversity of Ropalidiini in Indochina, the present checklist provides basic taxonomic information and distribution records for the Ropalidia wasps.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present paper is based partly on previously published faunistic records and also on the check of ropalidiine specimens that are housed at the Natural History Collection, Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan, the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi, Vietnam, and in private collections.
Species and subspecies names are listed alphabetically in each genus insofar as they are considered valid in the most recent citations.Species are numbered, with a sub-number for each subspecies, if any.Distributional data are summarized under "Distribution" by country, with reference not only to countries in Indochina but also to other countries/ regions.Abbreviations are as follows: NP -National Park; ISD-c -collectors of the Insect Systematic Department of the IEBR.
Museums or institutions where the type specimens are kept are as follows.Typically, the designation is the city in which the collection is located.

RESULTS
The checklist of ropalidiine species in Indochina presented in this paper includes 57 species and subspecies.Ropalidia birmanica, a new species that was raised to species rank from a subspecies Ropalidia taiwana birmanica subsp.n. van der Vecht, 1962, is also listed in this present paper (this document has not been published by Nguyen yet).
(20) mathematica (Smith, 1860) Polybia mathematica Smith, 1860, J. Proc.Linn.Soc.Zool.5: 90, female -"Makassar" [Sulawesi] (Oxford).Width of eye of female About 0.9 times width of gena From 1.0-1.2times width of gena Clypeus of male Less than 1.3 times as wide as long More than 1.5 times as wide as long Ocelli of male Posterior ocelli more than 2.7 fold as far from inner eye margin as from each other Posterior ocelli less than 2.6 fold as far from inner eye margin as from each other

Table 1 .
Ibaraki University, Japan, and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam.Comparison of character states between R. taiwana and R. birmanica