New Distributional Records of Parischnogaster mellyi (De Saussure, 1852) (Hymenoptera:Vespidae:Stenogasrtinae) from Various States of India

The hover wasp of the genus Parischnogaster Von Schulthess, 1914 (Hymenoptera:Vespidae:Stenogastrinae) consists of 10 valid species and all of them are described from the Oriental Region. Out of these, the species P. mellyi (de Saussure, 1852) is reported from India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim). This species is also recorded from Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines (Das & Gupta, 1989; Carpenter & Kojima, 1996; Srinivasan & Girish Kumar, 2009). In this paper, we recorded this species for the first time from Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The present records extend its known geographical range in India significantly from north eastern (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya) and eastern India (Sikkim) to central India (Chhattisgarh), southern India (Andhra Pradesh) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.