Indian Sawflies Biodiversity : Keys, Catalogue and Illustrations, Vol. III. Subfamily Allantinae

Contents: Introduction. Past work. Material and methods. Taxonomic characters used in the text. Subfamily allantiae. Key to the Indian genera of allantinae. Genus: 1. Allantidea Rohwer. 2. Allantopsis Rohwer. 3. Anisotaxonus Saini and Vasu. 4. Athalia Ieach. 5. Athlophorus Burmeister. 6. Beleses Cameron. 7. Clypea Malaise. 8. Darjilingia Malaise. 9. Empronus Malaise. 10. Eusunoxa Enslin. 11. Ferna Malaise. 12. Formosempria Takeuchi. 13. Hemathlophorus Malaise. 14. Hemibeleses Takeuchi. 15. Hemkuntus Saini and Deep. 16. Hennedyella Forsius. 17. Himindica Saini. 18. Hypsathalia Benson. 19. Indostegia Malaise. 20. Indotaxonus Malaise. 21. Isotaxonus Saini and Vasu. 22. Kambaitina Malaise. 23. Mallachiella Malaise. 24. Monostegidea Rohwer. 25. Neotaxonus Saini and Vasu. 26. Nepala Muche. 27. Ocla Malaise. 28. Oralia Malaise. 29. Sunoxa Cameron. 30. Tala Malaise. 31. Ungulia Malaise. 32. Generic and species table of Indian allantinae. Abbreviations. Bibliography. Index to scientific names.

"This volume on Sawflies Diversity of Indian subcontinent deals with subfamily Allantinae (Symphyta  : Tenthredinidae). This is an outcome of 30 years extensive and intensive survey of all high altitude regions of India covering the entire Himalayan belt and the hills of South India. Based on about 8000 specimens, this work covers 143 species belonging to 31 genera. Prior to this work only 34 species and subspecies belonging to 17 genera were on record. 5 genera and 87 species have been contributed by the author and his co-workers, whereas,  9 genera covering 22 species constitute the first record from this country. This is the first comprehensive monographic work compiled on this subfamily of sawflies from this region.

Economically, this is very important group of insects, as its developmental stages are pests on the plants such as Birch, Dogwood, Wild and cultivated straw berries, apples, roses, violets, willows, alder, walnut and many other herb and shrubs having lot of medicinal importance.

So that the future workers, intending to work on this group, may not face any difficulty, detailed keys both at the generic and species level are provided. A detailed catalogue is give that covers the entire available information on this subfamily. To substantiate the species identification, detailed illustrations, population variations if any and some species specific characters are given.

Since this group of insects was not covered in the fauna of British India volumes, so it remained intentionally ignored at the level of Indian naturalists. However, now this work will pave a way for the future studies on Indian sawflies." (jacket)