Accepted by J. Jennings: 5 Jun. 2018; published: 11 Jul. 2018 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2018 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 4444 (4): 421–436 http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Article 421 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4444.4.4 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F4E26BFC-A168-41CD-A0B0-E938CE0B5CAB Contributions to the taxonomy, identification, and biogeography of Thaumatogelis Schwarz, 1995 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) ZOLTÁN VAS 1,3 & MARTIN SCHWARZ 2 1 Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Hymenoptera Collection, H-1088 Budapest, Baross u. 13., Hungary. E-mail: vas.zoltan@nhmus.hu 2 Eben 21, A-4202 Kirchschlag, Austria. E-mail: schwarz-entomologie@aon.at 3 Corresponding author Abstract Three species of Thaumatogelis Schwarz, 1995 are described as new: T. megaera Vas sp. nov. from Mongolia, T. alecto Vas sp. nov. from Jordan, and T. tisiphone Vas & Schwarz sp. nov. from Sicily, Italy. The identity of the previously mis- interpreted T. pilosus (Capron, 1888) is clarified, and is redescribed. An updated identification key to the females of all known Thaumatogelis species is provided. Twelve new records from six countries are reported, some of them significantly expanding the known geographical distribution of certain Thaumatogelis species and that of the genus in the Palaearctic region. Key words: Cryptinae, Palaearctic, description, new species, Gelis, identification key, distribution Introduction Thaumatogelis Schwarz, 1995 is a moderately diverse genus of the subfamily Cryptinae (Ichneumonidae) with 30 valid species worldwide; 29 species are known from the Western Palaearctic region, two species from the Eastern Palaearctic region, and one species from the Afrotropical region (Schwarz 1995, 2001; Yu et al. 2012). Females of the genus are apterous; in species in which males have been described, they are known to be macropterous (Schwarz 1995), although the second author has seen two apterous males. Thaumatogelis species develop as parasitoids of spider egg sacs (Schwarz 1998; Schwarz & Shaw 2000). Taxonomy, biology and distribution of Thaumatogelis (and those of Gelis Thunberg) were revised by Schwarz (1995, 1998, 2001, 2002), describing several new species, and providing detailed redescriptions of all valid Thaumatogelis species known by females (except for two species which are considered nomina dubia due to lost types). Since this revision, to the best of our knowledge, no new Thaumatogelis species has been described. The taxonomical and biogeographical results of this paper are based mainly on the recent revision and identification of Thaumatogelis material of the Hymenoptera Collection of Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM, Budapest). During this process, the misinterpretation of the identity of T. pilosus (Capron, 1888) in Schwarz’s (1995, 2001) revision has been discovered (details in Taxonomy section below). In this paper, along with the description of three new Thaumatogelis species, we clarify the identity of T. pilosus (Capron, 1888), and redescribe it. Due to these taxonomical changes, we provide an updated, revised identification key to the females of all known Thaumatogelis species, and report new distributional data of several species of the genus. Material and methods Ichneumonidae taxonomy and nomenclature follow Schwarz (1995, 1998, 2001) and Yu et al. (2012). The morphological terminology follows Gauld (1991), Gauld et al. (1997), and Schwarz (1995, 1998, 2001, 2002). The