Distribution: SE part of Asian Russia: southern regions of Primorskii Krai (Dubatolov, Zinchenko, Bezborodov, 2015); India (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya), Nepal, China (East Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjing, Shangdong, Liaonin, Jilin: Siping, Heilongjiang: Harbin; Taiwan); Korea; Japan (Hokkaido: Oshima Peninsula, Okushiri; Honshu; Tshushima; Shikoku; Kyushu; Ryukyu: Oshumi, Amami, Okinawa, Iriomote) (van der Vecht, 1968; Matsuura, 1995; Kojima, Hagiwara, 1998; Tan et al., 2014).

Localities from collections of SZMN, ZIN, and literature: Russia: Primorskii Krai: Gusevskii Mine (7 km NE from Zanadvorovka); China: Heinongjiang (Harbin); Japan: Hokkaido (Oshima Peninsula, Okushiri Is.).

References
Dubatolov, V.V., Zinchenko, V.K. & Bezborodov, V.G. 2015. The Rothney’s Wasp, Polistes rothneyi Cameron, 1968 (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Vespidae), a new species for the Russian fauna from Southern Primorye. - Amurskii Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 7 (2): 159-160, colour pl. IX.
Kojima, J. & Hagiwara, Y., 1998. Lectotype designation of four species and one form of the paper wasp genus Polistes Latreille, 1802, described from Japan, with notes on the scientific names of Japanese Polistes (Insecta: Hymenoptera; Vespidae, Polistinae). - Natural History Bulletin of Ibaraki University 2: 247-262.
Matsuura, M., 1995. Social Wasps of Japan in Color. Sapporo: Hokkaido University Press. (In Japanese).
Tan, Jiang-li, van Achterberg, K., Duan, Mei-jiao & Chen, Xue-xin, 2014. An illustrated key of subgenus Gyrostoma Kirby, 1828 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) from China, with discovery of Polistes (Gyrostoma) tenuispunctia Kim, 2001. - Zootaxa 3785 (3): 377-399.
Vecht, van der J., 1968. The geographic variation of Polistes (Megapolistes subg. n.) rothneyi Cameron. - Bijdr. Dierk. 38: 97-109.