Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok XII. - Natura Somogyiensis 27. (Kaposvár, 2015)
Samin N. - Ghahari H. - Bagriacik N.: A contribution to the study of Megachilidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) from Golestan National Park, N Iran
Natura Somogyiensis 27 63-68 Kaposvár, 2015 A contribution to the study of Megachilidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) from Golestan National Park, Northern Iran Najmeh Samin1 Hassan Ghahari2 & Nil Bagriacik3 •Young Researchers and Elite Club, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; email: n_samin63@yahoo.com department of Plant Protection, Yadegar - e- Imam Khomeini (RAH) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; email: hghahari@yahoo.com 3Nigde University, Faculty of Science and Art, Department of Biology, 51100 Nigde, Turkey; email: bagriacik@hotmail.com Samin, N., Ghahari, H. & Bagriacik, N.: A contribution to the study of Megachilidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) from Golestan National Park, Northern Iran. Abstract: The fauna of megachilid wasps (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae) of Golestan National Park (Northern Iran) is studied in this paper. In total 22 species of 9 genera, namely: Anthidium Fabricius, Eoanthidium Popov, Heriades Spinola, Hoplitis Klug, Lithurgus Berthold, Megachile Latreille, Metadioxys Popov, Osmia Panzer and Stelis Panzer were collected and identified. Keywords: Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Megachilidae, fauna, Golestan National Park, Iran Introduction Megachilid wasps (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) with more than 4000 described species worldwide (Michener 2007) are found in a wide diversity of habitats on all continents except Antarctica, ranging from lowland tropical rain forests to deserts to alpine environments (Litman et al. 2011, Gonzalez et al. 2012). All megachilid bees feed on nectar and pollen, but a few are cleptoparasites, feeding on pollen collected by other megachilid species. Parasitic species do not possess scopae. Megachilid bees are among the world's most efficient pollinators because of their energetic swimming-like motion in the reproductive structures of flowers, which moves pollen, as needed for pollination (Hurd & Michener 1955, Bohart 1972, Krunic et al. 1995, Abrol 2011). Iran has several noteworthy national parks, and Golestan National Park is the largest. It is situated in the highlands of the Caspian region and also in the steppes of Khorasan province of Northern Iran. The Golestan National Park was the first area in Iran to be designated as a national park. It is located at 37,16'to 37,36*north latitude and 55,44*to 56,17* east longitude and has an area of circa 91000 hectares. The terrain is mountainous with altitude varies between 380 and 2819 meters (Hassan Zadeh et al. 1993). Although the animal fauna of Golestan National Park was studied well, the insects fauna was not studied so far, exceptn Ichneumonidae (Ghahari & Jussila 2010 - Ichneumonidae; Ghahari & Fischer 2011 - Braconidae; Ghahari 2013 - Miridae). In this aspect, the present study is an important contribution to the knowledge the entomofauna of Golestan National Park.
