گزارش جدید زنبور (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Polistes indicus Stolfa, 1934 در دامنه جنوبی رشته‌کوه البرز در ایران

The wasps of the family Vespidae are known as paper wasp, yellow jacket, hornets, mason wasp and potter wasps. They are a relatively large family with very common and well-known species Hymenoptera. Most of them are black with yellow or whitish spots or completely brown in color. Some species have a social life and therefore their colony consists of three castes: queen, worker and male. In some species, there is a very small difference between the queen and the worker, but usually the queens are a little bigger. There are about 5000 described species and the species of this family are ubiquitous. Most of the species have a solitary life, but a significant number also have a social life. Different classifications have been proposed for the bees of this family. The species of this family are placed in 6 subfamilies named Stenogastrinae, Polistinae, Eumeninae, Masarinae, Euparaginae and Vespinae. The sample studied in this research was collected in the spring of 2024 using an insect net in Semnan province, Miami city and from the edge of the sugar beet field. The collected sample was identified as Polistes indicus Stolfa, 1934, which belongs to Polistinae subfamily. Of this subfamily, two genera have been reported from Iran, and the genus Polistes contains more species. The species of this genus have been reported from different geographical regions and 203 species have been described. Polistes indicus is morophologically closely related to Polistes olivaceus (De Geer, 1773) and Polistes wattii Cameron 1900 from which it can be differentiated by the following morphological characteristicse: Ocellar diameter less than posterior ocellar line, Ocello-ocular line 1.5x as posterior ocellar line; dorsal solcus of clypeus shallow and concolourus with face; clypus unevenly punctuated with deep punctures mainly distributed in lower part; general body color yellowish-brown with distinct brownish patterns on dorsal part of the thorax and mesosoma. This bee is scattered in the countries of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iran (Kerman and Sisistan –o Baluchistan provinces), Pakistan and Iraq. In this research, this species is reported for the first time from the northern half of Iran. The specimen belonging to this species is deposited in the insect collection, Department of Plant protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Zabol University.