HALLE (SAALE ) 2012 MITT . DTSCH . GES . ALL G . AN G EW . ENT . 18 TIGER-wasps – A preliminary review of the apoid wasp diversity in Thailand (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) Volker Lohrmann, Lukas Kirschey, Stefanie Krause, Meike Schulze & Michael Ohl Museum für Naturkunde Berlin Abstract: Thailand is one of the countries in Southeast Asia with a remarkably rich but fragmentarily known insect diversity. Since its beginning in 2006, the Thailand Inventory Group for Entomological Research, known as the TIGER-group, has collected about 5,400 specimens of apoid wasps. Here we compare the preliminary results of our taxonomic analysis of this large sample with the published species/genus diversity of Thailand. Within the newly collected material, we recorded 57 genera of apoid wasps, with the following 22 genera listed for the first time for Thailand:Ampulicidae: Trirogma; Sphecidae sensu stricto: Chlorion; Crabronidae: Alyssontinae: Astata, Dryudella; Bembicinae: Alysson, Argogorytes, Brachystegus, Gorytes, Harpactus, Synnevrus; Crabroninae: Entomognathus, Lestica, Miscophus, Nitela, Paranysson, Prosopigastra, Solierella; Pemphredoninae: Ammoplanellus, Diodontus, Mimesa, Pemphredon and Psen. Key words: Aculeata, Sphecidae, Crabronidae, Ampulicidae, apoid wasp, digger wasp, Southeast Asia, Oriental region, Thailand, taxonomy, diversity, biogeography. Volker Lohrmann, Lukas Kirschey, Stefanie Krause, Meike Schulze & Michael Ohl, Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Abteilung Forschung, Invalidenstr. 43, D-10115 Berlin; E-Mail:
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[email protected] Introduction Within aculeate Hymenoptera, the ‘apoid’ or ‘sphecid’ wasps (= Apoidea excluding bees) are one of the largest groups of solitary wasps currently comprising 9,666 species in 268 genera (PULAWSKI 2011).