Contribution to the knowledge of vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve (Russian Far East)

Abstract

An annotated list of Vespidae wasps of the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Nature Reserve contains 28 species, belonging to 10 genera and 3 subfamilies, is given. The species annotations include localities and description of habitats. The present list is not final in our opinion. For comparison, 37 species from 11 genera inhabit Sakhalin Island, and 47 species from 13 genera are known in Lasovsky Nature Reserve in Primorsky Region of Russia. Comlex of Eastern-Asian species includes Vespula shidai, Vespa simillima, Polistes snelleni, P. diakonovi, P. riparius, Eumenes septentrionalis, Symmorphus mizuhonis, Ancistrocerus densepilosellus, A. japonicus, Stenodynerus pappi, Stenodynerus frauenfeldi. Some of these species were registered in Russia only on south of Primorsky Region (Ancistrocerus japonicus, Stenodynerus pappi, Polistes diakonovi). The territory of the Sikhote Alin Reserve is probably a north border of the ranges of these species. The complex of these Eastern-Asian species is not homogeneous and includes several groups belonging to different by origin faunas. For example, ranges of narrow-local Korean and Korean-Japanese Sikhote-Alin subendemic species (Stenodynerus pappi, Polistes diakonovi, Ancistrocerus japonicus, Vespula shidai) are limited by territories near the Sea of Japan (Korean Peninsula, Japanese Islands, Southern Kuril Islands, the eastern part of Sikhote-Alin). Other species of the Eastern Asian complex have wider ranges and are widespread in Southern and South-Eastern Siberia, Mongolia, Korea and Central China. For example, Polistes snelleni is distributed to the Transbaikal region and Yenisei River to the west, and the East Asian Polistes riparius is distributed to the southwest of the West Siberian Plain (Kurgan Region of Russia). The following rare species with a narrow ranges were registered in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve: Stenodynerus pappi, Polistes diakonovi, Ancistrocerus japonicus and Vespula shidai. Two species were common and numerous: Ancistrocerus trifasciatus and Symmorphus bifasciatus. The main faunistic groups and eco-landscape complexes of wasps were identified using a zoogeographical analysis of species. The eco-landscape complex of 15 widespread forestly mesophilous species leads by the number of species on the territory of the Sikhote-Alin Reserve. Dendrophilous and tamno-dendrophilous cavity-nesting wasps is the dominant ecological group in the reserve.

Keywords

• Hymenoptera
• Vespidae
• Eumeninae
• Polistinae
• Vespinae
• annotated checklist
• Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve.