Sycophaginae new placement, 1923

Burks, Roger, Mitroiu, Mircea-Dan, Fusu, Lucian, Heraty, John M., Jansta, Petr, Heydon, Steve, Papilloud, Natalie Dale-Skey, Peters, Ralph S., Tselikh, Ekaterina V., Woolley, James B., van Noort, Simon, Baur, Hannes, Cruaud, Astrid, Darling, Christopher, Haas, Michael, Hanson, Paul, Krogmann, Lars & Rasplus, Jean-Yves, 2022, From hell's heart I stab at thee! A determined approach towards a monophyletic Pteromalidae and reclassification of Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera), Journal of Hymenoptera Research 94, pp. 13-88 : 13

Sycophaginae new placement

Sycophagoidae Walker, 1875. Type genus: Sycophaga Westwood, 1840. Treated as Sycophaginae by Ashmead (1904).

Diagnosis.

Antennal variable in flagellomere count. Mandibles not falcate. Scapula anteriorly exposed by narrow pronotum. Axilla not strongly advanced. Axillula enlarged and convex (Fig. 107 ). Petiole simple, transverse. Males usually apterous (except in a few genera), residing inside figs (Fig. 108 ).

Discussion.

The taxonomic placement of the subfamily Sycophaginae has long been controversial. Sycophaginae were previously classified in Torymidae (Wiebes, 1967) and Agaonidae ( Bouček 1988; Heraty et al. 2013) as the family shares at least few features with these families. Different strategies to reduce biases in our phylogenetic inference (Cruaud et al., submitted) stabilized the position of Sycophaginae as sister to all other Pteromalidae . This position is corroborated by several features shared with other members of the family and a few others shared with Colotrechninae (large and convex axillula), the next lineage in the Pteromalidae topology. Sycophaginae and Colotrechninae also share a gall-associated biology, indeed most Sycophaginae are either gall-makers or parasitoids of gall-makers within figs. We therefore propose to include Sycophaginae in Pteromalidae new placement.

Figures

Figures 103 - 108. 103 Apocrypta caudata (Girault) (Pteromalidae, Otitesellini): mesosoma dorsal view 104 Philotrypesis caricae L. (Otitesellini): propodeum 105 Seres wardi van Noort (Otitesellini): fore tibia 106 Grandiana sp. (Otitesellini): male dorsal view 107 Pseudidarnes minerva Girault (Pteromalidae, Sycophaginae): metasoma dorsal view 108 Sycophaga sp. (Pteromalidae, Sycophaginae): male lateral view.