Annotated checklist of Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) in the Middle East and North Africa

Species of the family Pteromalidae from the Middle East countries are reviewed. A total of 445 species within 134 genera and 17 subfamilies are recorded from 20 countries including Algeria (25 genera, 37 species), Egypt (27 genera, 37 species), Iran (84 genera, 211 species), Iraq (13 genera, 18 species), Israel (34 genera, 53 species), Jordan (8 genera, 9 species), Kuwait (1 genus, 1 species), Lebanon (5 genera, 5 species), Libya (9 genera, 10 species), Morocco (71 genera, 122 species), Oman (3 genera, 5 species), Palestine (5 genera, 5 species), Saudi Arabia (10 genera, 14 species), Syria (11 genera, 15 species), Tunisia (15 genera, 17 species), Turkey (75 genera, 236 species), United Arab Emirates (7 genera, 7 species), Yemen (27 genera, 45 species). There are no published records from Pteromalidae from Bahrain and Qatar. On the basis of the new findings in this study, 22 species in 15 genera are collected and identified from various regions of Iran. Among them, the genera Blascoa Askew, 1997 and Plutothrix Förster, 1856 and three species, Blascoa ephedrae Askew, 1997, Plutothrix trifasciata (Thomson, 1878) and Homoporus pulchripes Erdös, 1953 are newly recorded for the fauna of Iran, the genus Blascoa Askew and three species are new for the Middle East fauna. Biogeographically, the species of Pteromalidae recorded from the Middle East are widely distributed in the Western Palaearctic region. Of which, 268 species were found only throughout the Palaearctic with no records from other regions. Among the countries of the Middle East, the highest percentage of endemism for Pteromalidae species were found in Turkey (56 species, 12.6%) and Yemen (25 species, 5.6%), later country representing the fauna of both Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions. The distribution in the Middle East and zoogeographical distribution For each species are presented.