First contribution to the doryctine fauna (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Doryctinae) of Farasan Archipelago, Saudi Arabia, with new records and the description of a new species

Abstract

The doryctine wasp species (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) of Farasan Archipelago (Saudi Arabia) are studied here for the first time. Six species are reported, of which Mimodoryctes arabicus Edmardash, Gadallah & Soliman is described and illustrated as a new species. Neoheterospilus sp. is most probably a new species but further collecting should be done to obtain the female. Four species are new records for Saudi Arabia as well as for the whole Arabian Peninsula: Dendrosotinus ferrugineus (Marshall, 1888), Hecabalodes anthaxiae Wilkinson, 1929, Mimodoryctes proprius Belokobylskij, 2001, and Rhaconotus (Rhaconotus) carinatus Polaszek, 1994. The newly recorded species are re-described and illustrated.

The velvet ant genus Pseudophotopsis André, 1896 (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae) in the Arabian Peninsula, with the description of two new species

“…It is a more or less rectangular plateau, bounded to the northeast by the Arabian (Persian) Gulf, to the south and southeast by the Arabian Sea, and to the west and southwest by the Red Sea (Engel et al 2011). The Farasan and Socotra Archi-pelagos are included in the present study, despite the fact that they are not geographically parts of the Arabian Peninsula, as they are politically parts of Saudi Arabia and Yemen respectively (Edmardash et al 2020;. While Saudi Arabia occupies almost two-thirds of the peninsula, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain share the remaining area (De Pauw 2002).…”