Snapshot of the Hymenopteran fauna of Stora Karlsö

Stora Karlso is a small island close to Gotland in the Baltic Sea of which the Hymenopteran fauna has not been extensively studied before. In August 2014, a team of eight persons carried out an inventory of Hymenoptera, mainly the parasitoid wasps and sawflies, on the island. Sampling was done with Malaise traps for a period of 22 days, complemented with vegetation sweeping, branch shaking and opportunistic handpicking during a five day sojourn. As a result, about 200 species of parasitoid wasps and 14 sawflies are reported for Stora Karlso for the first time. Eleven species are reported as new to Sweden: The sawfly Athalia cornubiae Benson, 1931, the gasteruptiid Gasteruption opacum (Tournier, 1877), the diapriid Spilomicrus rufitarsis (Kieffer, 1911), the eulophid Entedonomphale bulgarica Boyadzhiev & Triapitsyn, 2007, the braconids Bracon rozneri Papp, 1998 and Gnamptodon decoris (Forster, 1862), and the ichneumonids Bathythrix maculata (Hellen, 1957), Heterischnus filiformis (Gravenhorst, 1829), Lissonota picticoxis Schmiedeknecht, 1900,Mesochorus tipularius Gravenhorst, 1829, Ophion brevicornis Morley, 1915, and Plectochorus iwatensis (Uchida, 1928). Also the gasteruptiid Gasteruption opacum (Tournier,1877) is reported new to Sweden based on a record from inventory by NJ in 2013. This demonstrates how the knowledge of Swedish biodiversity can be substantially augmented by a short and intensive collecting expedition. We strongly recommend that other places in the country be subjected to similar efforts. (Less)