A checklist of Platygastridae and Scelionidae (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea) of Iran

Iranian species of the superfamily Platygastroidea (Hymenoptera) belonging to two families Platygastridae, (12 genera, 35 species) and Scelionidae (13 genera, 46 species), are reviewed. The recorded platygastroid species from Iran represent a very small assemblage of the world fauna, and certainly not the complete list from Iran. Except for a few recently described species, the others are found in many other countries as well. The known distribution for 27 species (77.1%) of Platygastridae of Iran is restricted to the Palaearctic region, while a smaller percentage was found in the Afrotropical (14.3%) and Nearctic (8.6%) regions. The distributions of 77.8% of Iranian scelionids are strictly Palaearctic, while the remaining scelionids were found also in the Nearctic (11.1%), Oriental (11.1%), Afrotropical (8.9%), Australasian (2.2%) and Neotropic regions (2.2%). Considering the sporadic treatment of platygastroids in Iran, it is evident that major parts of the country, including the eastern third, remain unexplored.