TAXONOMIC STUDY OF GENUS CERCERIS LATREILLE , 1802 ( HYMENOPTERA , CRABRONIDAE ) IN IRAQ

This study provides a Key to the species of Cerceris Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae, Philanthinae) that were collected from different areas in Iraq. This is followed by a distribution list, including total species which had been registered for Iraq. Also this study includes some observations about the species that were recorded in previous checklists.


INTRODUCTION
Sphecidae, a large family and a paraphyletic entity based on some phylogenetic analysis, was subdivided into four families: Heterogynaidae, Ampulicidae, Sphecidae and Crabronidae (Bohart and Menke, 1976;Brothers, 1999;Melo, 1999).These wasps can be diagnosed by the posterior edge of the pronotum which is a straight line which terminates laterally into a rounded lobe that does not reach the tegula (Bohart and Menke, 1976).
Members of Cerceris Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera; Crabronidae), is the largest genus of this family, with over 864 described species (Pulawski, 2017).The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species on every continent (Genaro, 2004).According to Bohart and Menke (1976), Roche and Gadallah (1999) and Guichard (1986) this genus was characterized from other forms by many morphological features: abdomen not petiolate, compound eyes without notch or they emarginated internally, prestigmal length of first submarginal cell much less than half total cell length, hind ocelli normal, recurrent veins 1m-cu and 2 m-cu received by the second and third submarginal cell respectively, apex of hind femur truncate or flattened, second submarginal cell of forewing with distinctly petiolate, medial vein of hind wing diverging after vein of cu-a.
Many species of Cerceris are solitary, but some of them are nesting sites or nesting communally; generally, the females of this genus dig a nest in the soil and provide it with living prey items that had been paralyzed with venom; their prey are usually beetles, and sometimes bees (Alexander and Asis, 1997;Genaro, 2004).
The aim of this study is to resolve the mistakes in some previous checklists and to design a key to the species which are collected during the current investigation.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0197

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The wasps were collected from different localities of Iraq that include the provinces of: Baghdad, Dohuk, Erbil, Maysan and Wasit during 2016.
Adult of wasps were collected by sweep nets, then mounted with insect pins and kept in insect boxes to be diagnosed.The genus of Cerceris and species were identified by using several taxonomic keys such as: Bohart and Menke (1976); Richards (1980); Schmidt (2000); Kazenas (2001) and Gadallah and Assery (2004); also they were compared with the diagnosed species stored in the Iraq Natural History Research Center and Museum, University of Baghdad.
The plates had been taken with a Samsung galaxy S4, GT-19500 and used binocular dissecting microscope (MB.MARIOBROMA.SRL, Roma) to magnificent the morphological features.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the present paper, a diagnostic key to species was made depending on the specimens collected in current investigations; these species include: Cerceris sabulosa, C. hortivaga, C. bupresticida and C. rubida.The other species that have not been obtained throughout the period of the investigations were referred to as a checklist and global distribution only.(Schmidt, 2000); Mongolia and North China (Tsuneki, 1971).Materials examined (3 males only): Dohuk province, Amadiya: 2 specimens, 31.VII.2016.Erbil prov., Rawanduz: 1 specimen, 2.VIII.2016.
Distribution: Iraq (Beaumont, 1961); this species distributes in Southern and Central Europe, North to Great Britain and Northern Germany; Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, also in Corsica and Sardinia (Schmidt, 2000).