Scientific Name
Polistes (Polistella) dawnae Dover & Rao, 1922
Taxonomic Placement
Hymenoptera: Vespoidea: Vespidae: Polistinae: Polistini: Polistes
Synonyms/Original combination
Polistes dawnae Dover & Rao, 1922: 248.
Brief diagnosis
Female: Antennae black, scape brownish beneath remaining black, flagellum with very fine cinereous pubescence. Head in frontal view as wide as high. Clypeus approximately as broad as long, large heart shaped yelloworange patch covering most of the area of clypeus, weakly convex in lateral view and touching inner margin of eye, fine pubescence on upper half clypeus and sparse scattered punctures each with a golden bristle on basal half: mandibles with shallow punctures, prominent yellow stripe alongside inner eye margin and short stripe on gena along postero-dorsal margin of eye, interocular distance more on vertex than at clypeus (1.77: 1.56), ocellocular distance slightly more than ocello-occipital distance (0.55: 0.49). Pronotum reticulate dorsally, forming thin lamella in dorsal part, slightly sinuate on lateral region, reaching ventral corner of pronotum. Yellow stripe along pronotal carina and posterior margin present. Mesoscutum black with fine punctures, weakly convex. Scutellum with deep scattered puctures and a raised carina in the middle at base running half way towards the apex, metanotum with puctures and paired yellow spots on the antero-lateral region, propodeum with distinct striae and with paired longitudinal yellow spots. Propodeal vulvula yellow. Median groove wide and moderately deep and equal throughout. Wings hyaline, veins brown, brownish yellow along the costal margin, stigma brownish yellow, radial cell slightly fuscous, second cubital cell at the top about as long as the distance connecting first intercubitus and first recurrent vein. Legs black with brownish tinge. First and second tergum with yellow apical band. Second abdominal segment wider than its length and second metasomal sternum strongly swollen.
Images
Distribution
India: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland.
Elsewhere: Laos; Myanmar; Vietnam.
Distribution within India
References
