A. S. Lelej and A. S. Shlyakhtenok
The velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) of Belarus, with analysis of the fauna of Eastern European countries.
Number: 297, Pages: 1 - 15
Four species, Myrmosa a. atra Panzer, Mutilla europaea Linnaeus, M. marginata Baer, and Smicromyrme (Smicromyrme) rufipes (Fabricius) are recorded from Belarus and three species, Paramyrmosa brunnipes (Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau), Myrmilla (Pseudomutilla) glabrata (Fabricius), and Physetopoda halensis (Fabricius) are expected to be find in Gomel' Province. For each recorded species material, general distribution, hosts, biotopical preferences and seasonal dynamic are given.The mutillid fauna of Eastern Europe comprises by 49 species in 15 genera. Because of mutillid wasps are thermophilic group the number of species dramatically reduced from south to north. The cluster analysis of faunal similarities among ten countries and regions of Eastern Europe produce two major clusters (index similarity 0.24): 1) South European territory of Russia, Crimea and Ukraine and 2) North and Central European territories of Russia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The UPGMA cluster analysis demonstrates the important boundary between zones of steppe and nemoral forest of Euro-Siberian subgerion of the Palaearctic. The ordination of mutillid fauna in the Eastern European countries showed the trend which reflects the latitudinal differences between the faunas of steppe and nemoral forest zones of Eastern Europe.