Illustrated keys to Scoliidae (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Scolioidea) from China

Abstract The Scoliidae occur predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions and are ectoparasitoids of Scarabaeoidea larvae (especially of Melolonthinae) which are immobilised, parasitised by the female wasp in their terrestrial larval gallery and buried deeper in a special cell by the female wasp. Herein, we provided, for the first time, illustrated keys to 11 genera and 52 species of Scoliidae from China, based on specimens in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (RMNH, Leiden) and additional specimens from the Chinese Academy of Insect Science (Beijing), Zhejiang University (ZJUH, Hangzhou) and Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU, Guangzhou) and it is a first attempt to make keys available for all the Scoliidae species in China.


Introduction
Scoliid wasps (Hymenoptera, Scoliidae) form a medium-sized family with approx. 560 species worldwide and occur predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions (Osten 2005). Scoliidae parasitise exclusively second and third instar beetle larvae of Scarabaeoidea (Illingworth 1919(Illingworth , 1921. There are few studies on this group from China, though several species are common in south and central China. Fabricius (1781-1804) described 41 species of Scoliidae, including six from China. In the 18 th century, more than 20 species have been reported from China by several authors (Lepeletier 1845;Eversmann 1846Eversmann , 1849Smith 1855;de Saussure 1858;de Saussure et al. 1864;Morawitz 1889;Bingham 1896Bingham , 1897. In the 19 th century, Betrem (1928) published a monograph on the Indo-Australian Scoliidae, including 72 species and subspecies, of which 20 were reported from China. Later,  published a systematic study on the Chinese Scoliidae including 2 genera, 61 species, subspecies and varieties from China, which is the first overview of the Chinese fauna, but partly confusing, because of naming too many (overlapping) subspecies and varieties. The systematics is in a state of confusion, which is well summarised by Elliott (2011). In China, 52 species are known (Liu et al., submitted), all belonging to the subfamily Scoliinae. For the present key, we examined Chinese specimens of four major collections: Naturalis Biodiversity Center (RMNH, Leiden, Netherlands), Chinese Academy of Insect science (IOZ, Beijing, China), Zhejiang University (ZJUH, Hangzhou, China) and Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU, Guangzhou, China). In this paper, we provide illustrated keys for all taxa of Scoliidae from China for the first time. This paper is part of an ongoing project on the revision of the Chinese Scoliidae.

Material and methods
This work is based on specimens in the collections of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (RMNH), Chinese Academy of Insect Science (IOZ), Zhejiang University (ZJUH) and Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU).
Examination and measurements were made using a stereomicroscope (Zeiss Stereo Discovery V8). Detailed images of specimens were taken and processed using a digital camera Zeiss Stereo Discovery V12 and with the software Axiovision SE64 Rel.49.1. Habitus images were taken with a Nikon D600 camera coupled with a Nikon 60 mm Macro lens and processed with the software Combine ZM. All images were further processed using Adobe Photoshop CS5. Morphological terms for body structures and measurements followed Betrem et al. (1972). Wing venation nomenclature followed a modified version of the Comstock-Needham (van Achterberg 1979) and Betrem et al. (1972) system. Abbreviations used are as follows: POL = postocellar line, OOL = ocular-ocellar line, OD = ocellar diameter; T1-T6 = 1 st to 6 th tergite of metasoma; S1-S5 = 1 st to 5 th sternite of metasoma.
The genitalia were removed, cleaned and pinned under the specimen in a genitalia tube as described by Prosvirov and Savitsky (2011).

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Second recurrent vein (2m-cu) of fore wing present and connected to second submarginal cell, resulting in two discal cells (a), if rarely absent (aa), then length of body 5-15 mm; mesopleural crest low, often carina-like, directed approximately to posterior corner of pronotum and with a small horizontal area at upper corner (b); T2 and T3 often with subapical row of setae bearing punctures (c); volsella of males divided into two parts (d); basal elevation of S3 ("gradulus") or of T3 usually present ( (Betrem, 1928) Notes. Only the male holotype of Campsomeriella ilanensis from Taiwan is known. According to the description and drawings by Tsuneki (1972a), C. ilanensis is very similar to C. (C.) collaris quadrifasciata (Fabricius, 1798) and it could be a synonym of the latter. Notes. Males of this genus are difficult to recognise, the key above is a practical key to the males present in the material we have studied and is just a first attempt. The male of M. farrenwhitei Betrem, 1928 is here recorded for the first time worldwide. However, males identified as M. szetschwanensis (Betrem, 1928) could be the male of M. stoetzneri Betrem or another species, since the female of M. szetschwanensis and the males of M. bella (Bingham, 1897), M. grossa (Fabricius, 1804) and M. stoetzneri (Betrem, 1928) are unknown and the forma A (in Betrem 1941, typical forma of C. szetschwanensis) specimen of M. szetschwanensis carries an identical collection label as the holotype female of M. stoetzneri (Schulten 2011).   Notes. The name Scolia quadripustulata Fabricius was misapplied for a long time to another species now known as Scolia binotata Fabricius (Gupta and Jonathan 2003). We checked all specimens from China in IOZ and RMNH and all were found to belong to Scolia (Discolia) binotata Fabricius. All reported records of S. quadripustulata from China concern S. binotata; therefore, we delete S. quadripustulata from the Chinese fauna.