Indian spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea: Pompilidae): After a century
Samrat Bhattacharjee
Department of Zoology, Scottish Church College, 1 & 3 Urquhart
Square, Kolkata- 700 006, West Bengal, India
Email: samrat.scc@gmail.com & sbzlgy@scottishchurch.ac.in
Spider wasps are an interesting group of insect which attack spiders and their larvae feed on spiders- hence the importance of the wasps in spider management programmes. Of about 5000 species known from the world (Shimizu, 1994), India has 141 species under 7 genera (Bingham, 1897). Surprisingly after Bingham’s elaborate work, in Indian context, no significant taxonomic account on this group have been documented although works on other vespoid families have been carried out. Present study in Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) and Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary (JWLS), both in the confluence of Eastern Himalayas, recorded 12 species under 7 genera belonging to subfamilies Pompilinae (5 species) and Pepsinae (7 species). Key to subfamilies, genera and species with descriptions and suitable illustrations are given. A new combination Leptodialepis zelotypus (=Salius zelotypus Bingham) is proposed. Two species Auplopus bimaculatus (Smith, 1992) and Leptodialepis cameroni (Banks, 1999) are new records from India. The collection localities of the species both in BTR and JWLS reflect the predominance of the species over plains than in the hills. Premonsoom period seems to be ideal for finding the wasps since all the species could be recorded during this time.
The status of spider wasps have undergone changes since Bingham’s work and the species documented in the Fauna of British India have only historical value. This demand for an elaborate survey and taxonomic study of the taxa.
