Hymenoptera from caves of Bakony Mountains, Hungary – an overlooked taxon in hypogean research

Csaba Kutasi,Zoltán Vas

doi:10.3897/subtbiol.19.10016

Abstract

There are no known troglobiotic hymenopterans, although a few species regularly occur in caves, usually for an inactive phase of their life-cycles. During a recent faunistical survey of the invertebrate fauna of Bakony Mountains’ caves (Hungary) several Hymenoptera specimens were collected in hypogean environments. In this paper we report the results of the survey regarding Hymenoptera. Although the Hymenoptera material was small in numbers, they provided valuable faunistical data: very rare or rarely collected species were found, and 5 taxa are first reported from hypogean environment. Aclastus longicauda Horstmann (Ichneumonidae: Cryptinae) was found new to the Hungarian fauna, considerably extending the distributional area of this species that has been known only from Northern Europe so far. Our local results clearly indicate that, both at local and world-wide level, research focusing on the usually overlooked Hymenoptera fauna of caves will certainly provide valuable faunistical, distributional and biogeographical data.

Highlights

There are no known troglobiotic hymenopterans, a relatively few species are known to regularly occur in caves, usually for executing an inactive phase of their life-cycle
Have been reported to be associated with hypogean environments. This number is greatly underestimated due to the following reasons: (i) usually zoologists studying troglobiotic animals are not specialized in Hymenoptera, do not consider to collect and/or identify the hymenopterans, as they are not troglobiotic animals; (ii) Hymenoptera specialists usually do not collect in hypogean environments; and (iii) even if there is collected material, there are relatively few specialists who are able to reliably identify the specimens of the most commonly collected, very diverse groups of parasitoid wasps
No troglobiotic hymenopteran species are known, our results suggest that more species are associated with hypogean environment for a shorter or longer phase of their life-cycles than expected

Summary

Introduction

There are no known troglobiotic hymenopterans, a relatively few species are known to regularly occur in caves, usually for executing an inactive phase of their life-cycle. Decu et al 1998, Moldovan 2004) This number is greatly underestimated due to the following reasons: (i) usually zoologists studying troglobiotic animals are not specialized in Hymenoptera, do not consider to collect and/or identify the hymenopterans, as they are not troglobiotic animals; (ii) Hymenoptera specialists usually do not collect in hypogean environments; and (iii) even if there is collected material, there are relatively few specialists who are able to reliably identify the specimens of the most commonly collected, very diverse groups of parasitoid wasps. The aim of this work is to contribute to the knowledge the Hymenopteran fauna of Middle European caves, and to facilitate future studies by drawing the attention to this poorly discovered topic

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion