ISSN 0375-1511 Rec. zool. Surv. India: 112(Part-l) : 113-119,2012 NEW RECORD OF THE GENUS COCHLISCHNOGASTER DONG AND OTSUKA (HYMENOPTERA: VESPIDAE: STENOGASTRINAE) FROM THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT P. GIRISH KUMAR, J.M. CARPENTER l AND P.M. SURESHAN 2 Zoological Survey of India, M- Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal- 700 053, India. E-mail: kpgiris@gmail.com IDivision of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79 th Street, New York, NY 10024, U.S.A. 2Western Ghats Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Eranhipalam, Kozhikode, Kerala- 673 006, India INTRODUCTION The hover wasps, Stenogastrinae, are a group of primitively eusocial wasps endemic to the Oriental region. They occupy an intermediate position between the solitary Eumeninae and the social Polistinae and Vespinae (Pickett and Carpenter, 2010). Members of this group exhibit considerable diversity in social behaviour and nest architecture. They usually inhabit shady parts of tropical forests and generally construct their delicate nests near water streams. The adult wasps do not fold their wings when at rest. The subfamily Stenogastrinae consists of seven genera, viz. Liostenogaster van der Vecht, Stenogaster Guerin-Meneville, Eustenogaster van der Vecht, Anischnogaster van der Vecht, Metischnogaster van der Vecht, Parischnogaster von Schulthess and Cochlischnogaster Dong and Otsuka (Carpenter and Kojima, 1996; Carpenter and Starr, 2000; Carpenter, 1988,2001). The taxonomy of Stenogastrinae has not been well studied in the Indian subcontinent. There are three genera, namely Liostenogaster, Eustenogaster and Parischnogaster, so far reported from Indian subcontinent (Das and Gupta, 1989; Carpenter and Kojima, 1996). In this paper, we are reporting the genus Cochlischrwgaster Dong and Otsuka for the first time from Indian subcontinent, recording the species C. dadugangensis Dong and Otsuka. The genus Cochlischnogaster was erected by Dong and Otsuka in 1997 with C. dadugangensis Dong and Otsuka as its type species. This genus is distinguished by the remarkable spoon-shaped filament on the apex of the male antenna. Dong and Otsuka (1997) described two species, namely C. dadugangensis and C. menglunensis, both from Yunnan (China). Cochlischnogaster menglunensis is known only from the female, and the characters used by Dong and Otsuka (aside from the male antenna) to distinguish the genus do not actually do so. Hence Carpenter (2001) considered C. menglunensis as of uncertain placement. Carpenter and Starr (2000) described another species, namely Chalogaster spa tu la ta, in the new genus Chalogaster from Vietnam and Thailand. Later, Carpenter (2001) synonymised the genus Chalogaster Carpenter and Starr under Cochlischnogaster Dong and Otsuka. MATERIAL AND METHODS The specimen was collected by using a triangular sweep net at the sides of a water stream of the dense forest of Namdhapa National Park, Arunachal Pradesh, India. The specimen was studied and photographed by using a Leica Stereo microscope with LAS software version 3.6.0., and drawing was made by using the drawing tube of the same microscope.