Zootaxa 3736 (1): 001–053 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2013 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3736.1.1 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:BC992886-EDAB-4D3E-A1F7-DEA34DB06A10 Review of the hymenopteran fauna of New Caledonia with a checklist of species JOHN T. JENNINGS1, LARS KROGMANN2 & CHRIS BURWELL3,4 1Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] 2State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Entomology, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] 3Natural Environments Program, Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300, South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia. E-mail: chris.bur- [email protected] 4Environmental Futures Centre and Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia Table of contents Abstract . 1 Introduction . 2 Material and methods . 4 The Hymenopteran Fauna of New Caledonia . 4 Tenthredinoidea . 4 Siricoidea . 4 Xiphydrioidea . 33 Orussoidea . 33 Stephanoidea . 33 Megalyroidea . 33 Trigonaloidea . 33 Ceraphronoidea . 34 Evanioidea . 34 Cynipoidea. 35 Diaprioidea . 35 Proctotrupoidea . 36 Platygastroidea . 36 Chalcidoidea . 37 Mymarommatoidea . 39 Ichneumonoidea . 39 Chrysidoidea . 40 Vespoidea . 40 Apoidea . 42 Apiformes (Apidae). 42 Spheciformes . 43 Conclusions . 43 Acknowledgements . 45 References . 45 Abstract The hymenopteran fauna of New Caledonia is reviewed and compared with that of Australia and New Zealand, as well as other islands in the south-west Pacific. In conclusion, several different scenarios (e.g., recent dispersal events and radia- tions) can be used to explain the extant distribution of New Caledonian Hymenoptera. A detailed checklist of 409 species and subspecies of Hymenoptera of New Caledonia is provided, along with estimates of the undescribed fauna, and a sum- mary of the general biology of the families represented in the region. Key words: Hymenoptera, wasps, bees, ants, Australia, New Zealand, south-west Pacific, biogeography Accepted by M. Buffington: 1 Oct. 2013; published: 11 Nov. 2013 1 Introduction The French Overseas Territory of New Caledonia is located in the south-west Pacific about 1,200 km east of Queensland, Australia, and 1,500 km north-north-west of New Zealand. The land area is about 19,103 km2, much smaller than that of New Zealand (269,057 km2) (Pauly & Munzinger 2003) and Australia (7,659,861 km2) (Geoscience Australia 2010). New Caledonia comprises the main island of Grande Terre which is dominated by a chain of high mountains which run along its entire length, and several smaller islands; the Belep archipelago to the north, Loyalty Islands to the east, Île des Pins (Isle of Pines) to the south, and the Chesterfield Islands and Bellona Reefs to the west. FIGURE 1. Map showing position of New Caledonia relative to other land masses in the south-west Pacific. New Caledonia separated from the margin of northeast Australia about 65 mya and reached its present position around 50 mya (see, for example, Coleman 1980; Raven 1980; Yan & Kroenke 1993). New Caledonia has until recently been considered as a continental island because of its geological origin and the presence of phylogenetic relicts (see, for example, Holloway 1979; Morat 1993), and as a consequence, its biota were considered to date from, at least partly, Gondwanan times. Some workers, such as Diamond (1984), have argued for relatively recent dispersal and subsequent radiation to account for some of the New Caledonian biota, although Bauer & Sadlier (2000) suggested that endemism of herpetofauna is extremely high in New Caledonia. Bauer (1988) concluded that “the long independent history of the island has accounted for the [herpeto]faunal composition”, and “there is little 2 · Zootaxa 3736 (1) © 2013 Magnolia Press JENNINGS ET AL. evidence of “recent” immigration via dispersal.” More recently, Bauer & Jackman (2006) suggested that “microendemism [of lizards] is the result of geologically and climatically-mediated fragmentation of habitats throughout the second half of the Tertiary”. Sharma & Giribet (2009) in their multi-gene phylogenetic analyses of the family Troglosironidae (Opiliones) found support for evolutionary relicts in the New Caledonian opilione fauna, and suggested a scenario of an ancient (> 200 Ma) origin of the family, with subsequent diversification of extant lineages in the Eocene. Geological evidence indicates Eocene ophiolitic obduction (39-36 mya; Lowry 1999; Lee et al. 2001), which resulted in the overthrusting of peridotite sheets, which today dominate the southern one-third of Grande Terre, followed by marine submersion(s) in the Oligocene and by Miocene marine regression and mountain building (see Bauer and Jackman 2006). This evidence and recent biogeographic and phylogenetic studies, suggest that at least some of the biota of New Caledonia are no older than the Oligocene (Grandcolas et al. 2008). An example supporting this is the study by Murienne et al. (2005) of the cockroach genus Angustonicus (subfamily Tryonicinae). Both geological and molecular dating showed that this group diversified less than two million years ago and that local species richness and endemism are not necessarily indicative of an old Gondwanan origin. This and other examples cited in Grandcolas et al. (2008), suggest that the biota is not that of a continental island which has retained many relict groups, but is that of an oceanic island with a rich local biota dominated by recent radiations following many dispersal events (Gillespie & Roderick 2002; Grandcolas et al. 2008). Murienne (2009) recently summarised three different models for explaining the biota of New Caledonia. The first of these is the ‘museum model’ or ‘Noah’s Ark model’ which implies that the island has acted as a ‘museum’ from Gondwanan times and the origin and diversification of New Caledonian lineages predates any submersion event(s). The other two models involve diversification after the land re-emerged, either with a series of mountain refugia and/or island refugia and long-distance dispersal, or without refugia and the current diversity being explained by long-distance dispersal alone. Murienne (2009) concluded that all three models could exhibit identical phylogenetic patterns. Molecular dating, such as with Angustonicus cockroaches (Murienne et al. 2005), could at least discern between the first and last models. Crisp and Cook (2009) recently proposed that cryptic mass extinction would result in a phylogenetic pattern indistinguishable from that of an evolutionary radiation. Interestingly, these scenarios might equally apply to New Zealand (Giribet & Boyer 2010). The geography and climate of New Caledonia have resulted in a wide range of vegetation types on Grand Terre. The major types are: maquis vegetation, a low, sclerophyllous, evergreen,.