Aspicera Dahlbom, 1842

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 35-36

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Aspicera Dahlbom, 1842

Remarks.

Rare in the Afrotropical region.

Diagnosis.

This taxon can be difficult to seperate from Prosaspicera . Aspicera hartigi , the only species recorded from the Afrotropical region thus far, has a much shorter scutellar spine than Prosaspicera . Additionally, Aspicera lacks the characteristic inner-orbital carina that Prosaspicera has. Finally, Aspicera hartigi (from Yemen) is distinctly bi-chromatic, with a orange-brown mesoscutum and black mesopleuron; African Prosaspicera , to our knowledge, are all black. Neralsia and Xyalophora are Figitinae and lack the characteristic ligulate T2 of the metasoma that aspicerines have. Furthermore, Neralsia and Xyalophora lack the setiferous pit on the frons, a putative defining feature of Aspicerinae ( Ros-Farré et al. 2000).

Distribution.

Mainly Holarctic, but marginally present in the Afrotropical region. Afrotropical records: Yemen (here).

Biology.

Ros-Farré and Pujade-Villar (2013) report, based on label data, that Aspicera dianae Ros-Farré, 2013 emerged from the syrphid Metasyrphus vinelandi (Curran, 1921). Ronquist (1999) and Weld (1952) report Aspicera species are parasitoids of aphidivorous Syrphidae and Chamaemyiidae , but these rearing records await confirmation.

Species richness.

Aspicera hartigi Dalla Torre, 1889 (Yemen). This species has also been reported from the UAE ( Buffington 2010 as Aspicera sp.), Saudi Arabia and Algeria (here)