Graptocleptes Stål, 1867

Graptocleptes was included among “the group of Neotropical wasp-mimetic harpactorine genera” by Maldonado & Lozada (1992), which, according with these authors, although it is a somewhat artificial way of grouping genera, helps to sort out specimens quickly from unidentified material. The species included in these genera are mimetic of Braconidae and/or Ichneumonidae and in need of a comprehensive revision in order to clarify their systematics (Gil-Santana et al. 2015). An updated key to the wasp-mimicking genera of Neotropical Harpactorini was presented by Gil-Santana (2015).

Ten species are currently included in Graptocleptes (Maldonado 1990, Gil-Santana et al. 2013). They can be recognized by consulting Stål (1872), who provided a synopsis of the characteristics of eight species, and the subsequent descriptions of G. varians Champion, 1899 (Champion 1899) and G. formosus Miller, 1951 (Miller 1951) . Champion (1899) stressed the fact that G. varians is extremely variable in color, while Stål (1872) recognized morphological and color variation in G. bicolor (Burmeister, 1838), recorded with more details by Gil-Santana et al. (2013).