Vipio Latreille, 1804

Li, Yang, He, Jun-Hua & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2020, Review of six genera of Braconinae Nees (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) in China, with the description of eleven new species, Zootaxa 4818 (1), pp. 1-74 : 58-60

Genus Vipio Latreille, 1804

Figs 47–54

Vipio Latreille, 1804: 173 ; Type species: Ichneumon desertor Fabricius, 1775 (Designated by Foerster, 1863: 235).

Isomecus Kriechbaumer, 1895: 12 ; Type species: Isomecus schlettereri Kriechbaumer, 1985 . Synonymized by Quicke et Sharkey, 1989: 349.

Zavipio Viereck, 1914: 156 ; Type species: Vipio marshalli Schmiedeknechi, 1896 . (Unnecessary replacement name for Vipio ) Diagnosis. Body small to medium-sized; terminal flagellomere not acute, and not, or only marginally, compressed, sometimes transversely incised on one side, occasionally partly fused with penultimate flagellomere; median flagellomeres about as long as wide; scapus robust, outer side apically usually truncate, or slightly emarginate, often slightly longer dorsally than ventrally, inner side secondary edge absent; eye glabrous, not or weakly emarginate; face often weakly convex, largely smooth but with some punctures and setae, especially laterally; clypeus without dorsal carina, but sometimes carinate dorsally; clypeal marginal setae typically formed into two clusters, which are sometimes twisted apically, or at least with one long seta at each side near anterior-tentorial pit; malar suture moderately developed, often weakly sculptured and setose; labio-maxillary complex usually elongate; frons often weakly concave medially, median groove usually rather shallow; mesosoma usually largely smooth and shiny; notauli often complete and moderately developed, but usually shallow posteriorly; scutellar sulcus narrow and crenulate; propodeum largely smooth, without medio-longitudinal carina, densely and long setose laterally; metanotum distinctly convex medially; angle between veins 1-SR and C+SC+R of fore wing more than 45º; marginal cell of fore wing short, vein SR1 reaching fore wing margin at 0.4–0.8 of distance between pterostigma and wing apex, vein 1-R1 shorter than pterostigma or about as long; vein 1-SR+M of fore wing more or less straight, or curved slightly towards anterior wing margin after arising from 1-M; second submarginal cell of fore wing distinctly widened distally; fore wing vein 3-CU1 not expanded posteriorly; hind wing often with a glabrous area basally; apex of hind wing vein C+SC+R with 1–4 thickened subbasal bristles; hind wing vein 1r-m distinctly shorter than vein SC+R1; claws with pointed or rounded basal lobe; metasoma often elongate; medial area of first metasomal tergite largely rugose, sometimes with medio-longitudinal carina posteriorly, or smooth and shiny; first tergite with or without dorso-lateral carinae, and lateral grooves often remain far removed from lateral margin of tergite; second metasomal tergite largely smooth to sculptured; medio-basal area of second tergite usually smooth, rarely rugose or absent, acute apically, sometimes connected to medio-longitudinal carina; oblique lateral grooves of second tergite deep, smooth or crenulate; second suture distinctly crenulate; antero-lateral areas of third tergite present or absent, and tergite often largely smooth, but sometimes sculptured; third and fourth tergites without subapically transverse groove; fourth–seventh tergites smooth; hypopygium usually reaching far beyond level of apex of metasoma; ovipositor normal, subapically upper valve slender and with nodus, and its lower valve with some minute teeth ventrally; ovipositor sheath as long as to much longer than length of fore wing.

Biology. Most species are idiobiont ectoparasitoids of concealed Coleoptera larvae ( Curculionidae , Cerambycidae , Lymexylonidae , Buprestidae ), and some species are ectoparasitoids of larvae of Pyralidae (Lepidoptera) ( Hopkins 1892; Pierce 1907; Satterthwait 1919; Fahringer 1928; Gahan 1930; Bushing 1965; Muesebeck 1967; Tobias 1986; Uhthoff-Kaufmann 1990; Volovnik 1994; Yu et al. 2016).

Distribution. Cosmopolitan.