Taxonomic and faunistic study of Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) from Iran, with illustrated key to species

Abstract

Aulacidae are parasitoids of wood-boring larvae of Hymenoptera and Coleoptera, known in all zoogeographic regions of the World, except Antarctic. Two aulacids, Pristaulacus compressus (Spinola, 1808) and the rare Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935, have been recently collected from Iran, the latter being a new record. Based on available data, the Iranian aulacid fauna includes five species within a single genus, Pristaulacus Kieffer 1900. A brief taxonomic treatment, as well as morphometric data and an illustrated key to species, are provided.

Full text

museum für naturkunde
Taxonomic and faunistic study of Aulacidae (Hymenoptera,
Evanioidea) from Iran, with illustrated key to species
Mostafa Ghafouri Moghaddam1, Giuseppe Fabrizio Turrisi2
1 Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, P.O. Box: 98615–538, I. R. IRAN
2 Via Cristoforo Colombo 8, 95030, Pedara, Catania, Italy
http://zoobank.org/583BCCD1-F6E1-492A-A0CE-5E1DB5114477
Corresponding author: Mostafa Ghafouri Moghaddam (ghafourim@uoz.ac.ir)
Abstract
Aulacidae are parasitoids of wood-boring larvae of Hymenoptera and Coleoptera, known
in all zoogeographic regions of the World, except Antarctic. Two aulacids, Pristaulacus
compressus (Spinola, 1808) and the rare Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935, have
been recently collected from Iran, the latter being a new record. Based on available data,
the Iranian aulacid fauna includes ve species within a single genus, Pristaulacus Kieer
1900. A brief taxonomic treatment, as well as morphometric data and an illustrated key
to species, are provided.
Key Words
Pristaulacus
Western Iran
wood-boring
parasitoid
illustrated key
Introduction
The aulacid wasps, Aulacidae Shuckard, 1842 are en-
doparasitoids of wood-boring larvae Coleoptera (Cer-
ambycidae and Buprestidae) and Hymenoptera (Xiphy-
driidae). The family Aulacidae is small distinct family
in the superfamily Evanioidea. This family includes
262 extant species grouped within only two genera,
Aulacus Jurine, 1807 with 83 species and Pristaulacus
Kieer, 1900 (including the former Panaulix Benoit,
1984), with 177 species (Jennings and Austin 2004,
Turrisi et al. 2009, Chen et al. 2016, Turrisi and Nobile
2016; Turrisi 2017). According to the online Taxapad
(Yu et al. 2012) this family contains four subfamilies
and 11 genera, including fossils. Some identied fossils
are not completely known and their inclusion within
Aulacidae still remains somewhat questionable (Zhang
and Rasnitsyn 2004).
Received 24 November 2017
Accepted 24 January 2018
Published 2 February 2018
Academic editor:
Michael Ohl
Some evidence support strongly a close relationship be-
tween Aulacidae and Gasteruptiidae and each group are cur-
rently considered as distinct families (Jennings and Austin
2000, Turrisi et al. 2009). However, the current generic clas-
sication of the Aulacidae is not suciently robust and needs
further study. There is strong support for the monophyly of
Pristaulacus but not for Aulacus, which is largely paraphy-
letic in the cladistics analyses of Turrisi et al. (2009). The
faunistic knowledge of Aulacidae is generally unsatisfactory
due to their general rarity and diculty in collecting by con-
ventional methods, e.g., by net; there is a general paucity of
available material, even in the large museums (Turrisi 2007).
The Iranian Aulacidae has been recently treated by
Ghahari (2012), Lotfalizadeh et al. (2017) and Ghahari
and Madl (2017). Nonetheless, continuous sampling in
dierent ecosystems, particularly with Malaise traps, has
resulted in new records which we present in this paper,
along with an illustrated key to species.
Zoosyst. Evol. 94 (1) 2018, 95–108 | DOI 10.3897/zse.94.22501
Copyright Mostafa Ghafouri Moghaddam, Giuseppe Fabrizio Turrisi. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribu-
tion License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Ghafouri Moghaddam, M. & Turrisi, G.F.: Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) of Iran96
Material and methods
The specimens examined in the present paper have been
recently collected using a modied Malaise-trap (Fun-
nel-Townes Style, B. Motamedinia, unpublished: BM-
MTF-TS) placed in various localities of Kermanshah
province (Western part of Iran), as well as in Eastern
provinces (Fig. 1A–B). The traps were a basic Malaise
trap supplemented with an additional internal collecting
bottle. The insects bump into the black mesh panel and
move towards the lighter mesh to escape due to their pos-
itive phototropism (van Achterberg 2009); at this point,
they encounter the collection bottle and become perma-
nently trapped. However, a considerable number of in-
Figure 1. Malaise traps; locations. A Kermanshah province, Dudan, adjacent to the river and valley; B Kermanshah province,
Harsin, near the foothills; C and D Additional collecting bottle inside the trap.

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97
sects fail to enter the collecting bottle for various reasons
e.g., inappropriate installation of trap or collecting bottle,
displacement of the trap by wind, or the particular behav-
ior of the insects (Fig. 1C–D). The collected specimens
were killed in 75% ethanol and then glued on triangular
cards, according to AXA protocol (van Achterberg 2009).
Finally, all of the specimens labeled using new pinning
block (Ghafouri Moghaddam et al. 2017).
Specimens were examined under a Nikon® SMZ645
stereomicroscope (Nikon® Inc., Japan). Illustrations of
taxonomically important body parts were taken using a
Canon® EOS 700D (Canon® Inc., Japan), a simple light
source with halogen lamp (manual) and 2× lenses mount-
ed on Hund® Stereomicroscope (Wetzlar Inc., Germany).
Multiple images were subsequently processed in Zerene
StackerTM version 1.04 software and post processed in
Adobe Photoshop® CS6. The images in the illustrated key
were prepared by the second author using voucher spec-
imens already deposited in his private collection. Mor-
phological terminology follows Crosskey (1951), Huber
and Sharkey (1993) and Turrisi (2007). Terminology for
surface sculpturing follows Harris (1979). A distributional
map was generated using SimpleMappr (Shorthouse 2010)
and collecting localities are given in Fig. 8. The follow-
ing abbreviations are used for depositories: CPTO: Guido
Pagliano collection, Torino, Italy; DPPZ: Collection of
Department of Plant Protection, University of Zabol, Iran;
DU: Depository Unknown; MCSN: Museo Civico di Sto-
ria Naturale “G. Doria”, Genova, Italy; MNHN: Muséum
National d’Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire d’Entomologie,
Paris, France; NHMW: Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien,
Austria; ZIN: Zoological Institute of the Russian Acade-
my of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia; ZMUC: Zoologi-
cal Museum, Copenhagen University, Denmark.
Measurements were done with a micro-ruler. Morpho-
metric ratios were measured in tpsDig ver. 2.05 (Rohlf
2006), using digitized coordinates of landmarks and cap-
ture outlines. It should be noted that we documented mea-
surements to the nearest 0.001 mm with tpsDig, but we
conservatively report them to an accuracy of two decimal
places. Denitions and abbreviations for the measured
characters are shown in Table 1 (see also Figs 2, 3, 5).
Table 1. Abbreviation for morphometric data, measured in the examined material.
Abbreviation Definition Explanation
ClL Clypeal maximum length Full-face view, as in Fig 5A
ClOL Clypeus-ocellar line Distance between base of clypeus and median ocellus, full-face view (Fig 5A).
ClW Clypeal maximum width Full-face view, as in Fig 5A
CoL Hind coxa maximum length In lateral view, as in Fig 3C
CoW Hind coxa maximum width In lateral view, as in Fig 3C
EL Eye maximum length Vertical line length of compound eye, full-face view (Fig 2A)
EW Eye maximum width Horizontal line, width of the compound eye, full-face view (Fig 2A)
FWL Fore wing maximum length From median margin of first axillary sclerite to distal point of wing blade, as in Fig 3A
FWW Fore wing maximum width Longest line drawn perpendicular to the length axis, as in Fig 3A
HL Head maximum length From anterior prominence of head to base of occipital carina, dorsal view (Fig 2B)
HW Head maximum width Maximum distance between lateral margins of compound eyes dorsal view (Fig 2B)
IOL Inter-ocular line Shortest distance between inner margin of compound eyes, full-face view (Fig 2A)
MsL Mesosoma maximum length
longest anatomical line that connects the posterior-most point of the propodeal lobe
with the anterior-most point of the pronotum, but if one of the reference points is not
visible, dorsal view may help, preferentially in lateral view (Fig 2D)
MsW Mesosoma maximum width In dorsal view, as in Fig 2E
MtL Metasoma maximum length From base of petiole to base of pygidium, lateral view (Fig. 3B)
OD Ocellar diameter In dorsal view, as in Fig 2B
OML Ocular-mandibular line Minimum distance between anterior margin of compound eye and mandibular
insertion to head, full-face view (Fig 5A)
OOCL Ocular-occipital carina line Minimum distance between lateral margin of compound eye and base of occipital
carina lateral view (Fig 2C)
OOL Oculo-ocellar line Shortest distance between margins of compound eye and ocellus, dorsal view (Fig 2B)
OTL Oculo-tentorial line Minimum distance between anterolateral margin of compound eye and tentorial pit,
full-face view (Fig 5A)
PEL Petiole maximum length From anterior-most margin to posterior margin of petiole, dorsal view (Fig 2F)
PEW Petiole maximum width Dorsal view, as in Fig 2F
PL Propodeum maximum
length From apex of scutellum to base of petiole, dorsal view (Fig 2E)
POL Posterior-ocellar line Shortest distance between margin of lateral ocelli, dorsal view (Fig 2B)
PSL Pterostigma maximum
length As in Fig 3A
PSW Pterostigma maximum width As in Fig 3A
PW Propodeum maximum width In dorsal view, as in Fig 2E
TL Temple maximum length Minimum distance between anterior margin of compound eye and base of occipital
carina, dorsal view (Fig 2B)

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Ghafouri Moghaddam, M. & Turrisi, G.F.: Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) of Iran98
Illustrated key to Iranian Pristaulacus Kieer
1 Lateroventral margin of pronotum without tooth-like process (a) ................................................................................ 2
– Lateroventral margin of pronotum with at least one tooth-like process (aa) ................................................................ 3
2 Head dull to weakly shiny, extensively transverse striolate (a); hind tarsus dark brown; tarsal claw with two tooth-like
processes (b); petiole stocky and short (c) .............................................................................P. barbeyi (Ferrière, 1933)
Results
Five species belonging to the genus Pristaulacus are re-
corded from ve provinces of Iran (East-Azarbaijan, Gui-
lan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and West Azarbaijan) (Fig. 8).
The species recorded for the rst time from Iran and from
individual provinces are marked with a single (*) or dou-
ble (**) asterisks, respectively. It should be noted that no
depository was mentioned for specimens of both P. bar-
beyi and P. galitae from Iran (Ghahari 2012), thus, it has
not been possible to examine this material for conrma-
tion. These taxa are marked below with an #.

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– Head shiny, mostly polished, except frons weakly striolate punctate (aa); hind tarsus yellow; tarsal claw with four tooth-
like processes (bb); petiole slender and elongate (cc) ........................................................P. gloriator (Fabricius, 1804)
3 Lateroventral margin of pronotum with one tooth-like process (see first couplet) ........................................................ 4
– Lateroventral margin of pronotum with two tooth-like processes (aa) .............................. P. compressus (Spinola, 1808)
4 Large sized species (body length, excluding ovipositor, 16.5–18.5 mm); occipital carina rim-like, blackish, 0.2× diameter
of an ocellus (a); hind basitarsus weakly but distinctly curved, 1.5× longer than tarsomeres 2–5 (b); ovipositor 1.4× fore
wing length ....................................................................................................................... P. mourguesi Maneval, 1935

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Ghafouri Moghaddam, M. & Turrisi, G.F.: Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) of Iran100
– Medium sized species (body length, excluding ovipositor, 8.0–11.5 mm); occipital carina cerciniform, brownish, 0.5×
diameter of an ocellus (aa); hind basitarsus straight, 1.1× longer than tarsomeres 2–5 (bb); ovipositor 1.2× fore wing
length .................................................................................................................................. P. galitae (Gribodo, 1879)
Family Aulacidae Shuckard, 1842
Pristaulacus Kieer, 1900
Pristaulacus barbeyi (Ferrière, 1933) #
Odontaulacus barbeyi Ferrière, 1933: 141, Holotype ♀ and paratype
♂. — Algeria, Babor (MNHN).
Distribution. Algeria, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Turkey
(Turrisi 2007) and Iran (Ghahari 2012; Turrisi 2013a, b, c).
Distribution in Iran. West Azarbaijan province (Ghahari
2012: DU).
Diagnosis. P. barbeyi is a small to medium-sized spe-
cies, with body length (excluding ovipositor) of 6.7–
11.8 mm, fore wing length 5.1–8.1 mm; ovipositor
length 1.3× fore wing length (holotype), but variable
length among specimens from Turkey. It is readily dis-
tinguished by the shape of the head with a very narrow
cerciniform occipital carina (width less than 0.2× ocel-
lus diameter), rounded latero-ventral margin of prono-
tum without tooth-like processes, tarsal claw bearing
two tooth-like processes along the inner margin, and a
short and stocky petiole.
Hosts. Ghahari (2012) mentioned an unknown Bupresti-
dae as host of this species in Iran, living on Abies.
Pristaulacus compressus (Spinola, 1808) **
Figs 2, 3, 4
Aulacus compressus Spinola, 1808: 48, Holotype ♂. — Italy, Liguria,
Habitat in montibus Orerii (MCSN).
Specimens examined. 2♀, DPPZ. Iran, Kermanshah
province, Dudan, 35°01′00″N, 46°11′32″E, 1155m,
20.VI.2016, Malaise trap no. 2 mounted in orchard,
leg.: M. Zardouei Heidari; 1♀, DPPZ. Iran, Kermanshah
province, Harsin, 34°16’18.89”N, 47°36’16.63”E, 1568
m, 05.VII.2016, Malaise trap no. 1 mounted in orchard,
leg.: M. Zardouei Heidari.
Distribution. Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Italy,
Lebanon, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia (west-
ern territories), Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey,
Ukraine and former Yugoslavia (Madl 1990, Turrisi
2007, 2011, 2013a).
Distribution in Iran. Shiraz (Madl 1990: 114, NHMW),
East-Azarbaijan (Lotfalizadeh et al. 2017: DU), and Ker-
manshah province (new record).
Diagnosis. It is a medium sized species with a body
length of 8.8–14.2 mm (excluding ovipositor), fore wing
length 6.6–9.5 mm. It is readily distinguished by having a
wide occipital carina (width equal to ocellus diameter), a
pair of tooth-like processes on each latero-ventral margin
of pronotum, reddish-orange hind tarsus, and ovipositor
length 1.1–1.3× fore wing length.
Morphometric ratios. CIOL/ClL: 1.10; ClL/ClW: 3.33;
ClW/OML: 0.69; CoL/CoW: 2.61; EL/EW: 2.42; EL/
OML: 2.90; EW/OOCL: 0.40; EW/OTL: 1.21; FWL/
FWW: 3.10; HL/ClL: 4.04; HL/TL: 2.07; HW/EW: 9.48;
HW/HL: 1.21; IOL/CIOL: 1.36; IOL/EW: 2.91; IOL/
HW: 0.30; IOL/OML: 3.48; MsL/MsW: 2.18; MtL/MtW:
2.57; PEL/PEW: 1.90; PL/PW: 0.67; POL/OD: 1.46;
POL/OOL: 1.00; SL/SW: 2.89; TL/EL: 1.55.
Hosts. This species was reared from Chlorophorus adelii
Holzschuh, 1974 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) in tree oak,
Quercus sp. (Madl 1990, Wall 1994). The reared beetle is
polyphagous on deciduous trees and is endemic to Iran
(Holzschuh 1974).
Remarks. The distribution of this species covers main-
ly the European area (see Turrisi 2011). It shows some

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Figure 2. Pristaulacus compressus Spinola 1808. female (Iran): A face, frontal view; B head, dorsal view; C head, lateral view;
D mesosoma, lateral view; E mesosoma, dorsal view; F petiole and metasoma, dorsal view.
rugulose, a longer petiole and ovipositor (see Turrisi
(2007, 2011 for more details). The head bears a coarser
punctuation than European specimens of P. compressus
and P. lindae, but less so than the other two similar spe-
cies P. samai Turrisi, 2011 and P. rapuzzii Turrisi, 2011.
intraspecic variation in colour and sculpture of some
parts of the body (Turrisi 2007). The most similar spe-
cies is P. lindae Turrisi, 2000, having hind tarsi blackish
brown, metasoma more extensively red orange, dierent
shape of mesosoma, sculpture of prescutum carinulate

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Ghafouri Moghaddam, M. & Turrisi, G.F.: Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) of Iran102
Pristaulacus galitae (Gribodo, 1879) #
Aulacus galitae Gribodo, 1879: 339, Holotype ♀. — Tunisia, Galita
Island (CPTO).
Distribution. Algeria, Austria, Bulgaria, Canary Islands
(Tenerife), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France,
Germany, Greece (including Crete and Rhodos), Hun-
gary, Iran, Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Moroc-
co, Poland, Romania, Russia (westernmost area), Slo-
vakia, Spain, Tunisia (including Galita Island), Turkey,
Ukraine and former Yugoslavia (Turrisi 2007, 2013a,
Ghahari 2012, Huejt and Wiśniowski 2012).
Distribution in Iran. East Azarbaijan province (Ghahari
2012: DU).
Figure 3. Pristaulacus compressus Spinola 1808. female (Iran): A fore and hind wing; B petiole and metasoma, lateral view; C hind
coxa, lateral view; D hind claw, ventral view.

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Figure 4. Pristaulacus compressus Spinola 1808. female (Iran): lateral habitus.
Diagnosis. P. galitae is a medium-sized species with a
body length of 8.0–11.2 mm (excluding ovipositor), fore
wing length 4.5–7.8 mm. It is distinguished by the com-
bination of the following features: shape of the head, with
rounded prole of temple, occipital carina moderately
wide (0.5× OD), one anterior tooth-like process on each
side of latero-ventral margin of pronotum, ovipositor
length 1.0–1.2× fore wing length.
Hosts. Ghahari (2012) mentioned specimens reared in
Iran from Trichoferus griseus # (Fabricius, 1792) (Cole-
optera, Cerambycidae) feeding on common g, Ficus car-
ica L. (Moraceae).
Pristaulacus gloriator (Fabricius, 1804)
Bassus gloriator Fabricius, 1804: 99, Holotype ♀. — Germany, Habitat
in Germ. Dom. Smidt (ZMUC).
Distribution. Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, Ger-
many, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Poland, Romania,
Russia (European and central areas), Slovakia, Turkey,
former Yugoslavia (Turrisi 2007, 2013a, Huejt and
Wiśniowski 2012).
Distribution in Iran. Guilan province (Madl 1990: 114–115,
NHMW; Turrisi 2007).
Diagnosis. P. gloriator is a medium to moderately large-
sized species with a body length of 10.2–15.0 mm (ex-
cluding ovipositor), fore wing length 8.2–11.8 mm. It
can be easily identied by the shape of the head with a
narrow cerciniform occipital carina (width 0.2× OD), a
rugulose-carinulate frons, latero-ventral margin of prono-
tum rounded without tooth-like processes, four tooth-like
processes on the inner margin of tarsal claw, and light
yellow tarsi.
Hosts. This species was reared from Paraclytus reitteri
(Ganglbauer, 1881) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) feeding
on alder, Alnus sp. The reared beetle is polyphagous in
deciduous trees i.e. Acer, Alnus, Carpinus and Quercus
(Miroshnikov 2014).
Remarks. This species was previously recorded as P.
holzschuhi Madl, 1990 from Bandar-e Pahlavi (now
called: Bandar-e Anzali - Anzali Port), Assalem, Guilan,
Iran (Madl 1990), and is considered as a synonym of P.
gloriator (Turrisi 2007) (type material examined and de-
posited in NHMW).
Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935 *
Figs 5, 6, 7
Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935: 66, Holotype ♀. — France,
Pont-Ravatgers (MNHN).
Specimens examined. 2♀, DPPZ. Iran, Kermanshah
province, Dudan, 35°01′00″N, 46°11′32″E, 1155m,
20.II.2016, BM-MTF-TS mounted in orchard, leg.:
M. Zardouei Heidari; 1♀, DPPZ. same locality label,
05.VI.2016, BM-MTF-TS mounted among Oak forest -
Quercus brantii Lindley, leg.: M. Zardouei Heidari.
Distribution. Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary (Turrisi
2007, 2013a), Iran (new record).

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Ghafouri Moghaddam, M. & Turrisi, G.F.: Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) of Iran104
Figure 5. Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935. female (Iran): A face, frontal view; B head, dorsal view; C head, lateral view;
D mesosoma, lateral view; E mesosoma, dorsal view; F petiole and metasoma, dorsal view.
Distribution in Iran. Kermanshah province.
Diagnosis. P. mourguesi is one of the largest species
among the Palaearctic Pristaulacus with a body length
varying from 16.5 to 18.5 mm (excluding ovipositor), and
fore wing length of 8.8–13.0 mm (♀). It is distinguished
by the shape of the head, narrow cerciniform occipital
carina (width 0.2× ocellus diameter), hind basitarsus long
and slightly curved, 1.5× length of tarsomeres 2-5, and
long ovipositor, 1.4–1.6× fore wing length.
Morphometric ratios. CIOL/ClL: 1.21; ClL/ClW: 2.75;
ClW/OML: 0.78; CoL/CoW: 2.71; EL/EW: 2.65; EL/
OML: 2.72; EW/OOCL: 0.58; EW/OTL: 1.14; FWL/

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Figure 6. Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935. female (Iran): A fore and hind wing; B petiole and metasoma, lateral view; C hind
coxa, lateral view; D hind claw, ventral view.
FWW: 3.02; HL/ClL: 2.01; HL/TL: 1.97; HW/EW: 5.40;
HW/HL: 1.27; IOL/CIOL: 1.27; IOL/EW: 3.26; IOL/HW:
0.60; IOL/OML: 3.35; MsL/MsW: 1.91; MtL/MtW: 6.39;
PEL/PEW: 2.39; PL/PW: 0.55; POL/OD: 2.08; POL/OOL:
1.33; SL/SW: 2.62; TL/EL: 0.80.
Hosts. Unknown (Turrisi 2007).
Remarks. This species was previously recorded only from
Europe (Turrisi 2007, 2013a). There is a possible record
for the Near East without source material (Madl 2012).
The closest species is P. morawitzi (Semenow, 1892) being
medium sized, punctures of head very ne, supercial, and
scattered, metasoma pyriform, strongly compressed, nearly
entirely reddish orange. See Turrisi (2007) for more details.

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Ghafouri Moghaddam, M. & Turrisi, G.F.: Aulacidae (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea) of Iran106
Discussion
The number of Iranian Aulacidae is raised to ve, all
within a single genus (Pristaulacus). All these species
have been collected in Northern and Northwestern (forest
Figure 7. Pristaulacus mourguesi Maneval, 1935. female (Iran): lateral habitus.
habitat) regions, except P. compressus, which is recorded
from Southern (subdesertic habitat) region.
Jennings et al. (2004) stated that remnant stands of for-
est are an ideal habitat for their wood-boring hosts. These
wasps can be locally abundant in areas undergoing log-
Figure 8. Distribution map of aulacid species in some provinces of Iran.

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107
ging or forest res. The rich fossil record of Aulacidae
indicates they were quite abundant in the Mesozoic (Jen-
nings and Austin 2004, Turrisi et al. 2009).
The new specimens have been collected in Zagros
forests, which have an area of about 6 million hectares
(3.5 percent of Iran), located in the west of Iran with a
semi-arid to temperate climate. This wide territory is also
referred to as western oak forests (oak-woodland), due to
the dominancy of oak species (Quercus spp.). The species
composition of the woodland vegetation depends on the
climatic conditions (Zohary 1973, Kwandrans 2007).
The ve species reported in this paper are distributed
only in the Western part of the Palearctic region. The results
of the present study clearly show the improved eciency of
modern collecting methods for Hymenoptera that are rarely
collected with most conventional methods. In addition, the
best collecting period seems to be June and this is consistent
with those reported in Lotfalizadeh et al. (2017).
Although the research suggests a higher number of
species in the Western territories of Iran we predict that
the Eastern and Southern parts should also be quite spe-
cies-rich. Further investigation, especially in poorly
collected regions will probably increase the number of
known species (Turrisi 2014). The species reported from
Iran have ranges included in the Western part of the Pa-
laearctic region. Given the poorly known faunistic sit-
uation, it is premature to discuss possible relationships
among faunas of Iran and adjacent territories.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Ms. Maryam Zardouei Heidari (Uni-
versity of Zabol, Iran) for collecting the specimens and
Mr. Amir Nabizadeh Sarabandi (University of Birjand,
Iran) for his suggestion and advice on photographing.
The authors also express their deep gratitude to Ehsan
Rakhshani (University of Zabol, Iran) who oered con-
structive comments that signicantly improved the manu-
script. The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin kindly waived
the author’s fees for this manuscript. The authors thank
the anonymous reviewers and the editor for the helpful
comments on the manuscript.
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