NEW AND ADDITIONAL DATA ON THE SWEAT BEES OF HALICTUS GENUS-GROUP (HYMENOPTERA APOIDEA HALICTIDAE) FROM IRAN

Abstract

An annotated and updated checklist of Iranian bee taxa in the Halictus genus-group is presented and synopsized in this paper. Totally 59 species within two genera (Halictus Latreille and Seladonia Robertson) are listed which among them, Seladonia (Pachyceble) petrae (Blüthgen, 1933), Seladonia (Seladonia) mugodjarica (Blüthgen, 1933) and the rare Seladonia (Seladonia) semitecta (Morawitz, 1873), are introduced as new records for the country. Diagnostic morphological features and worldwide distribution information are provided for all new records. Our findings contribute to improve the knowledge about the species diversity and distribution of the halictid bees in Iran. Key Words: Distribution, halictid bees, Iranian fauna, new records, rare species, taxonomy