Vespa tropica (Linnaeus, 1758)

(Fig. 33)

Sphex tropica Linnaeus, 1758: 571, “in Indiis” (holotype ♀ Uppsala).

Vespa cincta Fabricius, 1775: 362, [India] “ad littora Malabarica” (Kobenhavn), nom. praeocc., nec Vespa cincta Drury, 1773, nec Vespa cincta De Geer 1773 .

Vespa Crabro tenebrionis Christ, 1791: 216, pl. 18, fig. 4 (destroyed).

Vespa deusta Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1836: 506, ♀, “Patrie inconnue” (lectotype Torino).

Vespa unicolor Smith, 1863: 44, ♀, [Indonesia] “Bouru” (Oxford).

Vespa eulemoides du Buysson, 1905: 491 (key), 530, ♀, [India] “ Ile Andaman: port de Blair” (Genova).

Vespa affinis var. trisignata Pérez, 1910: 8, ♀, [Indonesia] “Timor” (Paris).

Vespa rubricans Pérez, 1910: 10, ♀, “Lindi (Afrique orientale allemande)” (lectotype Paris).

Vespa tropica var. anthracina Bequaert, 1936: 335 (key), 341, ♀, ♂, “ Philippine Islands: Sibuwan” (holotype ♀ Washington).

Vespa tropica var. haematodes Bequaert, 1936: 336 (key), 338, ♀, ♂ - “ India: Kooloo” (holotype ♀ Cambridge).

Vespa tropica leefmansi van der Vecht, 1957: 19, ♀, ♂, [Indonesia] “Solok, Padang, Sumatra” (holotype ♀ Leiden).

Vespa tropica trimeres van der Vecht, 1957: 19 (key), 22, ♀, [Indonesia] “Palu, West Celebes” (Leiden).

Vespa tropica cebuana Kojima & Reyes, 1984: 260, ♀, [Philippines] “Cebu City” (Tokyo).

Material examined. Attock, 20.x.12, 1♀, 26.05.xii, 2♀; Rawalpindi, 23.xi.11, 3♀, 1♂, 07.vi.12, 1♀; Chakwal, 16,vi,12, 2♀.

Distribution. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Thailand, India, Papua New Guinea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar (Carpenter & Kojima 1997, Dvořák 2007, Mahmood et al. 2012).

Comments. Collected specimens were compared with Mahmood et al. (2012). This species can be distinguished on the basis of followings characters: second metasomal segment completely orange and further segments are black. New locality records have been provided for this species.