The Sawflies of Crete (Hymenoptera, Symphyta)

Abstract

Forty-two sawfly species are now known from Crete, including twelve species here recorded for the first time, and excluding earlier published records of Allantus didymus (Klug, 1818) based on misidentifications. Allantus nigrolinearis (Zirngiebl, 1937) is treated as a distinct species within the laticinctus-didymus group. Aneugmenus oertzeni (Konow, 1887) is allied to the Sardo-Corsican A. bibolinii Zombori, 1979 and belongs to Aneugmenus Hartig, 1837 s. str., not Atoposelandria Enslin, 1913. Pristiphora nievesi Haris, 2002 is a new synonym of P. tetrica (Zaddach, 1883). Of the newly recorded species, Chevinia mediterranea Lacourt, 2003, Dolerus puncticollis Thomson, 1871 and Empria archangelskii Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1929 are simultaneously new for the country of Greece. Four species (Allantus nigrolinearis, Aneugmenus oertzeni, Periclista cretica (Schedl, 1981) and Pristiphora sp. [subbifida group]) have not been recorded outside Crete, and may be endemic. It is not clear whether the morphologically and genetically distinctive Cretan specimens of Strongylogaster multifasciata (Geoffroy, 1785) should be regarded as a Cretan endemic species, for which the name S. cretensis Konow, 1887 is available, or as an isolated population of S. multifasciata. This requires further study, as also the taxonomic status of Heterarthrus imbrosensis Schedl, 1981 (only known from Crete) and H. wuestneii (Konow, 1905) (widespread in the West Palaearctic). The sympatric occurrence of three related Pristiphora species on Acer sempervirens, two of which differ in their choice of host individuals that are at different stages of vegetative development, is remarkable. A checklist of the Symphyta of Crete is presented.