New records of Polistes paper wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) for Georgia with first DNA barcodes from Vashlovani National Park
We hereby present the first country records of two vespid species of the genus Polistes Latreille, 1802 (Vespidae) — Polistes bucharensis Erichson, 1849 and P. mongolicus du Buysson, 1911 — for Georgia (Sakartvelo). We identified specimens morphologically and confirmed the identification with DNA barcode data. Based on this, we provide some of the first DNA barcodes for these species from the region as a basis for future research.
Authors
- Dustin Kulanek
- Toshko Ljubomirov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3202-3309)
- Martin Husemann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5536-6681)
- George Japoshvili
Institutions
- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BG)
- State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (DE)
- Agricultural University of Georgia (GE)
- Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (BG)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Caucasiana
- Published
- 2026-04-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3897/caucasiana.5.e177177
- Primary Topic
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation
- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences