New records of Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) for the Italian fauna

Abstract New distributional records on 55 ichneumonids (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Italy are provided. Of these, 47 species are new for Italy, including representatives of the subfamily Diacritinae and of the tribes Zimmeriini (Ichneumoninae) and Pseudorhyssini (Poemeniinae); six species are new for Sardinia, one for Sicily and one for the Italian mainland. The hitherto unknown female of Baranisobas hibericus Heinrich, 1972 (Ichneumoninae) is described.


Introduction
With more than 24,000 species described (Yu et al. 2012), Ichneumonidae is one of the largest families of Hymenoptera and one of the largest within insects. More than 6,500 species have been recorded for Europe so far (Achterberg and Zwakhals 2004). Despite their richness and the role they play as pest control agents, the faunistic knowledge of this group in many European countries and worldwide remains scarce.
It is difficult to give a precise estimate of the number of species of Ichneumonidae occurring in Italy. About 1,850 species are recorded for the country in the checklist of the Italian fauna (Scaramozzino 1995). Most of the data refer to northern and central regions of Italy, while records on the ichneumonid fauna of the south, Sicily and Sardinia are relatively few (Scaramozzino 1995, Zwakhals andTurrisi 2014). More recently, the Fauna Europaea project increased this number to about 2,000 species (Achterberg and Zwakhals 2004). In both cases, however, it is not possible to link records in the checklist to voucher specimens in collections or to data in the literature, which makes it difficult to verify the records, keep track of nomenclatorial and systematic changes, and update the checklist accordingly. Based exclusively on records from the literature, the Taxapad database (Yu et al. 2012) reports about 1,700 species for Italy, but the real number of species in the country is likely to be much higher. By crossing the references in the Italian checklist (Scaramozzino 1995) with those in Fauna Europaea and Taxapad (Achterberg and Zwakhals 2004, Yu et al. 2012, the number of ichneumonid species recorded for Italy reaches about 2,200 species. This result cannot be considered reliable, as only a direct verification of the literature and of the specimens in private and public collections can attest the real number and identity of ichneumonid species found in Italy. References to the literature and/or to voucher specimens in collections would be essential to make a scientific and reliable checklist, and would allow to track taxonomic changes through time and update the checklist properly.
The present study reports 47 new species for the Italian fauna, six new species for Sardinia, one for Sicily and one new record for the Italian mainland. Thanks to some intensive samplings conducted in Italy in the last few years, our paper provides a remarkable -though probably still incomplete -contribution to the knowledge of this group in the Italian territory.

Materials and methods
Most of the records in the present paper originate from sampling efforts in central and north-eastern Italy (Fig. 1) aimed at investigating parasitoid community composition in fragmented landscapes (Di Giovanni et al. 2014, Inclán et al. 2014). The field sampling in north-eastern Italy was carried out in 2013 using Malaise traps (Omnes Artes s. a. s.) in the understory of semi-natural and artificial oak-hornbeam forests of the eastern Po Plain (Fig.  2). Some further records stem from canopy sampling with Malaise traps, carried out in 2008 in the natural reserve of Bosco della Fontana (Lombardy; see Di Giovanni et al. 2014). The field sampling in central Italy (Tuscany) was conducted in 2012 using yellow pan traps in fragments of semi-natural grasslands derived from eroded claystones ( Fig. 3; see Inclán et al. 2014). Additional records come from the private collection of the first author (with the exception of one specimen from DAFNAE and one from ZSM) and from the Sardinian CONECOFOR (Forest Ecosystem Control) sampling project, carried out by Italian State Forestry Service between 2003and 2006(see Nardi et al. 2011.  Malaise trap in an oak-hornbeam forest in north-eastern Italy. New records of Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) for the Italian fauna 3 All taxa are listed in alphabetical order. The assignment of species to higher taxa follows the Catalogue of World Ichneumonidae (Yu et al. 2012). Distributional notes, with minor changes, follow the Catalogue of World Ichneumonidae (Yu et al. 2012) and the Fauna Europaea website (Achterberg and Zwakhals 2004).
Colour: face and thorax mostly black; white are inner orbits, narrow stripe on outer orbits, central spot on face, scapus and flagellum ventrally, collar, upper hind margin of pronotum, subalar ridge, tegulae, scutellum and postscutellum. Metasoma black; postpetiolus, tergite 2 and 3, and basal part of tergite 4 red; tergite 6 with white spot, tergite 7 mostly white. Coxae, trochanters and legs black; coxae I and II with white spot, ventral side of tibiae I and II, femur I except the base and apex of femur II pale yellowish.
Pronotum with a strong longitudinal ridge medially. Mesoscutum with coarse puncture and fine granulation, strongly shining. Mesopleurum with coarse puncture (slightly rugose-punctate apically), intervals smooth and shining, metapleurum with coarse puncture, shining. Scutellum slightly wider than long, with lateral carinae in the basal 0.5. Propodeum completely carinate, area superomedia hexagonal, about as long as wide. Hind coxa punctate, without scopa. Hind femur stout, about 3.3 times as long as wide.
Colour: mostly black. Flagellum with ivory ring on flagellomeres 7-11. Ivory are narrow stripe on frontal orbit, apical half of scutellum, narrow apical band on tergite 6 (one specimen with completely black tergite 6) and wide apical band on tergite 7. Tergites 1-3 red. Following tergites black, the fourth one more or less reddish laterally. Coxae and trochanteres black. Femora I-II reddish, more or less infuscate at bases. Tibiae and tarsi I-II reddish, yellowish-red on frontal side. Hind leg black, tibia III with red subbasal ring. Pterostigma black.

Diagnosis
The female of B. hibericus Heinrich is similar to B. ridibundus (Gravenhorst, 1829) but it differs in having a stouter first flagellomere, strongly shining mesoscutum with coarse punctation, and a stouter hind femur (Figs 4,5).

Distribution
Previously known only from Portugal (Heinrich 1972).

Notes
New for Italy.      Agrothereutes monticola (Habermehl, 1935) (Fig. 10). Notes: New for Italy. The tribe Zimmeriini is recorded for the first time for the Italian fauna (Fig. 12).

Discussion
Most of the data in the present work refer to ichneumonid species that are widespread in Europe or in the Palaearctic region. Besides widespread species, we record some taxa whose geographic ranges are probably confined to the Mediterranean Basin (e.g. Chirotica rubrotincta, Barichneumon montgator) and others that were previously known only from one or few localities (e.g. Baranisobas hibericus, Agrothereutes monticola, Phobetes nigriventris, Mesoleius tibiator). For some species (e. g. Diplazon parvus, Dicaelotus morosator, Polysphincta longa), the known distibution should be carefully evaluated, because of possible confusions occurred in the past with morphological similar species (see Aubert 1969, Fritzén and Shaw 2014, Klopfstein 2014. The present study increases the number of ichneumonids in Italy to more than 2,260 species. Albeit it is a significant improvement over the checklist of 1995 (Scaramozzino 1995), the comparison with up-to-date checklists of neighbour countries indicates that the list is still largely incomplete: for example, more than 4,000 species have been recorded for Germany, about 3,000 for France and more than 2,500 species for Austria (Yu et al. 2012). In particular, lower attention has been given to the faunistic knowledge of the ichneumonid fauna of southern Italy and its major islands (Scaramozzino 1995). Less than 300 species of ichneumonids are known for Sicily (Turrisi et al. 2007, Riedel and Turrisi 2013, Zwakhals and Turrisi 2014 and only about 150 for Sardinia, a very low number if compared to the about 500 species known for Corsica (Yu et al. 2012).
These data, together with the environmental heterogeneity, resulting from complex orography and latitudinal extension, and the central location of Italy in the Mediterranean region (Minelli et al. 2005), suggest that the real number of ichneumonids in Italy is much higher than that known today. 32 Di Giovanni F et al.