A CHECKLIST OF IRANIAN VESPINAE ( HYMENOPTERA : VESPOIDEA : VESPIDAE )

A checklist of Iranian Vespinae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is presented. The list is based on a detailed study of all available published data. Nine vespine species from three genera (Vespa Linnaeus, Vespula Thomson, Dolichovespula Rohwer) are currently recognized as occurring in Iran.

Iran covers an area of about 1,648,000 km 2 .Attitudinally, it ranges from 28 m below sea-level on the shores of the Caspian Sea to the 5770 m of Mt.Damavand.Climatically, there is the contrast between the humid, almost jungle-like forests of the south Caspian and the arid, in places lifeless deserts of Dasht-e Lut; the temperature ranges from a winter low of -35 o C in the north-west to a summer high of 50 o C on the Persian Gulf.As a result of these major topographical, geological and climatic variations, Iran is rich in animal and plant diversity (Fig. 1).The objective of this paper to summarize all the data on Iranian Vespinae.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The published data on the Vespinae subfamily in Iran was summarized.The checklist comprises the following data: the valid taxa name, published records with provincial distribution and general distribution.Iranian provinces are given in alphabetical order in the lists.

RESULTS
The present work includes 9 vespine species from 3 genera.The list of species is given below in alphabetical order.
General distribution: Europe except the extreme south; Asia, south and east to Southern Siberia, Mongolia, China, Korea, and Japan (Carpenter and Kojima, 1997).
General distribution: Asia east to Korea and south to northern India; Europe; Northern Africa; introduced into many regions of the world: Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, Ascension island, South Africa, Canada, Chile, Argentina, USA (Carpenter and Kojima, 1997).
General distribution: Europe except extreme south; Turkey, Georgia, through Siberia to Nepal, Russian Far East, Korea, and Japan (Carpenter and Kojima, 1997).General distribution: Europe except extreme south; Asia south to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Kashmir, Northern China, east to Korea and Japan; introduced into Iceland, New Zealand, and Australia (Carpenter and Kojima, 1997).

DISCUSSION
In total, nine vespine species are listed in this paper as fauna of Iran.As we mentioned in the introduction, Iran is a large country with various geographical regions so that diverse fauna of Vespinae is expected.Although several faunistic surveys were done in different regions of Iran by many researchers, it is possible that a few other new vespine will be discovered in the future.Therefore, continuing faunal samplings is necessary in Iran, especially in un-sampled regions.Also, application of new taxonomic methods (e.g.behavioral characters, electrophoresis, DNA sequencing and etc.) for an even more precise identification of Iranian specimens is suggested.The understanding of the evolutionary history of the Vespinae has changed greatly as new techniques and trends have developed.Many studies have only looked at behavioral characters (Greene, 1979) or a combination of behavioral and morphological characters in estimating phylogeny (Carpenter, 1987).The evolutionary history of the Vespinae has also been examined using techniques that do not rely on morphological or behavioral characters: protein electrophoresis (Varvio-Aho et al., 1984) and DNA sequencing (Schmitz and Moritz, 1990).The above-mentioned taxonomic studies, together with research into the biology and behavior of Iranian vespine specimens will result in new and interesting data for science.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Map of Iran with boundaries of provinces.