Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok XVI. - Natura Somogyiensis 32. / Miscellanea 16. (Kaposvár, 2018)

Ghahari, H.: A faunistic study on digger wasps of Iran (Hymenoptera)

Ghahari И.: A fauntstic study on digger wasps of Iran

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Genus Sphex Linnaeus, 1758

Sphex (Sphex) flavipennis Fabricius, 1793

Material examined: West Azarbaijan province, Oshnavieh, 2$, v.2006; Fars province, Abadeh, 2$, vi.2007; East Azarbaijan province, Arasbaran, 2$, vii.2007; Sistan & Baluchestan province, Iranshahr, 2$, iv.2007.

Sphex (Sphex) funerarius Gussakovsky, 1934 Material examined: Flamadan province, Malayer, 2$, vi.2000.

Sphex (Sphex) oxianus Gussakovsky, 1928 Material examined: Kerman province, Jiroft, 1$, ix.2001.

Sphex (Sphex) flavipennis Fabricius, 1793

Material examined: West Azarbaijan province, Salmas, 1 $, vi.2007. New record for Iran.

Sphex (Sphex) pndnosus Germar, 1817 Material examined: Qom province, Qom, 2$, vii.2005.

Discussion

Finding these eight new country records and also regarding to data of the checklist Jahantighi et al. (2017) indicate that the fauna of Iranian digger wasps is diverse and rather unknown. With this eight new records total number of species of Iranian digger wasps reaches to 412. Iran is a vast country with huge numbers of varieties in landscapes and weather conditions (Zehzad et al. 2002). This rich environmental condition led to the high diversity of flora of Iran Plateau (Ghahreman & Attar 1999) that affects the species richness of insects, like digger wasps. Conducting the faunistic surveys systematically in different areas of Iran especially in east and south where have poorly been studied, will result to finding several new records and probably new species.

Acknowledgements

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Toshko Ljubomirov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) for identification of specimens, W.J. Pulawski (California Academy of Sciences, USA) for editing the manuscript, the late A.W. Hook (St. Edward’s University, USA) for his comments on Iranian digger wasps and sending identification keys, and M. Ohl (Museum fur Naturkunde, Germany) for providing some papers. The research was supported by Islamic Azad University (Yadegar-e- Imam Khomeini (RAH) Shahre Rey Branch).