Hedychrum, IN

Rosa, P., 2019, Two new species of Hedychrum Latreille (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae) from India and Nepal with review of the genus distribution in Asia, Far Eastern Entomologist 385, pp. 1-11 : 8-9

DISTRIBUTION OF HEDYCHRUM IN ASIA

Asian Hedychrum are poorly known. In India only four species have been recorded so far: H. flammulatum Smith, 1858 , H. lugubre Cameron, 1897 , H. timidum

Dahlbom, 1854 (du Buysson, 1896; Bingham, 1903) and H. gracilentum Mocsáry,

1911. In Pakistan only two species are known: H. linsenmaieri Rosa, 2019 (H.

timidum sensu Bingham (1903) and du Buysson (1904)), and H. lama du Buysson,

1891 (Nurse, 1904), whereas any species was recorded for Nepal. Kimsey and

Bohart (1991) listed nine species for the Oriental region: H. flammulatum Smith,

1858, H. formosanum Mocsáry, 1911 , H. lugubre Cameron, 1897 , H. philippinum

Mocsáry, 1913, H. stantoni Ashmead, 1904 , H. striatum Mocsáry, 1911 , H. taiwanense Tsuneki, 1970 , H. takasago Tsuneki, 1970 , and H. timidum Dahlbom, 1854 .

More recently, Rosa et al. (2014) listed twelve species for the Palaearctic part of

China ( H. chalybaeum Dahlbom, 1854 , H. davidi du Buysson, 1900 , H. gerstaeckeri

Chevrier, 1869, H. gracile Semenov, 1967 , H. japonicum Cameron, 1887 , H. lati-

tudum Linsenmaier, 1959, H. longicolle Abeille de Perrin, 1877 , H. manchurianum

Tsuneki, 1950, H. niemelai Linsenmaier, 1959 , H. nobile (Scopoli, 1763) , H. simile

Mocsáry, 1889, H. sinicum Semenov, 1967 ) and only three for the Oriental part ( H.

formosanum, H. taiwanense , H. takasago ).

The scarcity of known species from the Oriental region is related to limited and incomplete collecting as well as to distributional and ecological reasons; in fact

Hedychrum are more abundant in temperate, xerothermic and semi-desert regions than in tropical and subtropical regions, reflecting the great quantity of their hosts

( Hymenoptera Crabronidae ) in these areas (Rosa et al., 2016).

For Palaearctic Asia, five species were listed by Ha et al. (2008) for Korea, all already known for China excluding H. japonicum Cameron and H. okai Tsuneki,

1954. Seven species were listed for Siberia (Rosa et al. 2017c) and six for Russian

Far East (Rosa et al., 2017b), all already known for China but H. virens Dahlbom,

1854 (identification of the latter is however in need or confirmation), H. rutilans ermak Semenov, 1967 (Siberia) and H. viridilineolatum Kilimnik, 1993 (Primorski

Terr.).

The Central Asian fauna is better known, thanks to the works of Mocsáry (1889,

1909), Semenov (1967) and Semenov & Nikol’skaya (1954). Twenty species have been here recorded: H. alexii Semenov, 1967 , H. cholodkovskii Semenov, 1967 , H.

concinnum (Mocsáry, 1909), H. cribratum Mocsáry, 1909 , H. cribricolle Semenov,

1967, H. frivaldszkyi Mocsáry, 1889 , H. gerstaeckeri Chevrier, 1869 , H. jakobsoni

Semenov, 1954, H. kozhantshikovi Semenov, 1954 , H. longicolle Abeille de Perrin,

1877, H. niemelai Linsenmaier, 1959 (Almaty, Kazakhstan, first record for Central

Asia [ NMLS]), H. nobile (Scopoli, 1763) (Almaty, first record for Kazakhstan

[NMLS]), H. phoebus Semenov, 1967 , H. punctigerum Mocsáry, 1909 , H. rutilans

Dahlbom, 1854, H. sapphirinum Semenov, 1954 , H. semicyaneum Mocsáry, 1889

(Baygakum, first record for Kazakhstan [NMLS]), H. severtzovi Semenov, 1967 , H.

simile Mocsáry, 1889, H. virens Dahlbom, 1854 .

The number of currently known Asian species is no doubt underestimated.

Examination of specimens deposited in some of the largest museum collections

(Guangzhou, Luzern, St. Petersburg) shows that several undescribed species are still waiting for description as well as a generic revision. Linsenmaier (NMLS)

labelled some Oriental specimens Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar as types yet their descriptions were never published, and several other species from India ,

Malaysia and Nepal are still unidentified and considered as possibly undescribed.

None of these species is matching the two new ones described in the present paper.