Description of a new species of social wasp from Somalia (Hymenoptera: Vespidae).

The genus Polistes is represented by four confirmed species in Somalia, three belonging to the subgenus Polistes s. str., namely P. badius Gerstaecker, P. africanus Palisot de Beauvois, and P. marginalis (Fabricius), while the last species belongs to the subgenus Polistella, P. fastidiosus de Saussure (Bequaret, 1918; Carpenter, 1996). In addition, several more species might occur there, based on their known distribution in neighbouring countries, namely P. tenellus du Buysson, P. tristis Meade-Waldo, and P. smithii de Saussure (Carpenter, 1996). The relative scarcity of available specimens from this region presents a challenging taxonomic problem, making any available specimen very interesting in a taxonomic sense. In addition, there is a substantial lack of sufficient taxonomical information; the last revision of this genus from Africa was published in 1938 (Bequaret, 1938).