Zootaxa 4754 (1): 020–073 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2020 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4754.1.6 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F180E4FF-2E26-406D-B988-AA7505CAA90A

Biodiversity of the aculeate (: Aculeata) of the Arabian Peninsula: (Spheciformes),

NEVEEN S. GADALLAH Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

An updated checklist of the Arabian species of Crabronidae is provided here. The list includes 383 identified valid species in 54 genera and seven subfamilies: Astatinae (3 genera, 16 species), Bembicinae (10 genera, 86 species), Crabroninae (27 genera, 199 species), Dinetinae (1 genus, 3 species), Eremiaspheciinae (2 genera, 7 species), Pemphredoninae (7 genera, 14 species) and Philanthinae (4 genera, 58 species). Distributions, both on the Peninsula and extra-limital, are provided for each species and subspecies; 77 species (20%) are endemic to the Arabian Peninsula, as is one subspecies.

Key words: Astatinae, Bembicinae, Crabroninae, Dinetinae, Eremiaspheciinae, Pemphredoninae, Philanthinae, distribution

Crabronidae Latreille, 1802

The paraphyletic (or perhaps even polyphyletic) Crabronidae (Ohl & Bleidorn 2006; Lohrmann et al. 2008; Ohl & Spahn 2010; Peters et al. 2017) are a large family of primarily solitary wasps that are worldwide in distribution, especially in arid and semi-arid areas (Bohart & Menke 1976; Schmid-Egger 2011). It currently includes 9009 species in 248 genera and eight subfamilies (Pulawski 2019). Crabronidae were formerly treated as several sub- families within the family (s.l.) (superfamily “Sphecoidea”), which is now divided into four families, Ampulicidae, Crabronidae, Heterogynaidae and Sphecidae (s.s.), together with the forming the superfamily Apoidea (Hanson & Menke 2006; Pulawski 2019). Although a recent molecular-phylogenetic study (Debevec et al. 2012) found that the families Ampulicidae and Heterogynaidae are sequential sister taxa to the other two families (the Sphecidae and the paraphyletic Crabronidae), Branstetter et al. (2017) suggested that both Heterogynaidae and a paraphyletic Sphecidae (s.s.) are embedded in a polyphyletic Crabronidae. Sann et al. (2018) found Sphecidae (s.s.) to be monophyletic but within “Crabronidae”, which they suggested should be broken up into eight families. Given the many uncertainties remaining, these recent proposals for reclassification have not been implemented here. Crabronidae comprise 90% of all known extant apoid species (Ohl & Engel 2007; Pulawski 2019). Species of the family Crabronidae are minute to large day-active wasps that prefer high temperatures. Almost all of them are solitary hunting wasps, but social life ranging from communal nesting to eusociality is also known in some crabronid genera such as Cerceris Latreille, Microstigmus Ducke and Spilomena Shuckard (Matthews 1968; Turillazzi et al. 2014). Females nest in the soil or in dead wood, or build mud cells in the open or on house walls, rocks or even tree trunks. Most Arabian species nest in the ground (Schmid-Egger 2011). After paralyzing its hosts/ prey (usually but also spiders), the female places them in a nest cell and lays an egg on the host’s body. The hatched larva feeds externally on such prey. The Crabronidae of Arabia have been extensively studied; some of the genera as well as the whole family were revised by several authors (see sources below). An updated list of the species on the Arabian Peninsula is provided here. In total, 383 identified species in 54 genera and seven subfamilies are reported: Astatinae (3 genera, 16 spe- cies), Bembicinae (10 genera, 86 species), Crabroninae (27 genera, 199 species), Dinetinae (1 genus, 3 species), Eremiaspheciinae (2 genera, 7 species), Pemphredoninae (7 genera, 14 species) and Philanthinae (4 genera, 58 species). They represent 4% of the total number of crabronid species worldwide, and the family represents 35% of the recorded aculeate wasps of the region. Crabroninae are the most diverse subfamily, comprising 52% of the total

20 Accepted by Denis J. Brothers: 17 Dec. 2019; published: 20 Mar. 2020