A review of Chrysidoidea (Hymenoptera, Aculeata), excluding Chrysididae of Iran

Species of four chrysidoid families, Bethylidae, Dryinidae, Embolemidae, and Sclerogibbidae that occurred in Iran are reviewed. A total of 54 species within 27 genera from Iran are listed. The family Bethylidae with 34 species belonging to 16 genera was the largest group followed by Dryinidae with 17 species belonging to eight genera. The known Bethylidae species from Iran certainly represent a very small piece of the world fauna, distributed mainly in the Palaearctic region. Of the seventeen species of Dryinidae, the known distribution of ten species is known yet limited to the Palaearctic region, but five species are distributed in the north of the Afrotropical region (Arabian peninsula). The families, Embolemidae and Sclerogibbidae each represented by two and a single species in Iran, respectively. Embolemus huberi Olmi is here recorded from Kirghizstan, Turkey and Turkmenistan for the first time. Until now, no species of the families Plumariidae and Scolebythidae have been recorded from Iran. Despite the importance and diversity of both bethylids and dryinids, it seems that the least attempts have been done to study their fauna in Iran.