Microgasterinae Foerster, 1863

Abdoli, Parisa, Talebi, Ali Asghar, Kavallieratos, Nickolas G., Khosravi, Rasoul & Bidari, Farzad, 2024, Contribution to the phylogeny of Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) based on mitochondrial COI and nuclear 28 S rDNA genes, with comments on the identity of Pholetesor circumscriptus (Nees, 1834), Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 10 (4), pp. 965-981 : 971

Subfamily Microgasterinae Foerster, 1863

Phylogenetic analysis. The constructed phylogenetic trees of Microgastrinae based on the COI and 28S rDNA genes are shown in Figure 1, and Figure 2, respectively. In the COI gene tree, some taxa were recovered as well-supported sister, comprising Hypomicrogaster , Apanteles , Illidops ; Iconella , Neoclarkinella ; Dolichogenidea, Exoriza , Parapanteles ; Alphomelon , Janhalacaste , Pseudapanteles , but in a well-supported clade with Rhygoplitis , Hygroplitis , Microgaster , Papanteles , Sendaphne , Dasylagon , Promicrogaster , Paroplitis , Shireplitis , Clarkinella , Glyptapanteles , Cotesia , Protapanteles , Sathon , Lathrapanteles . Other clades that were recovered together as paraphyletic included Diolcogaster , Buluka , Protomicroplitis, Larrismus , Parenion , Xanthomicrogaster ; Jimwhitfieldius , Kotenkosius , Venanus , Mariapanteles , Miropotes , Venanides ; Alloplitis , Philoplitis , Prasmodon , Zachterbergius , Rasivalva , Wilkinsonellus , and Microplitis , Snellenius , Choeras, Deuterixyes , Beyarslania . In the 28S rDNA gene tree, the genera which were recovered as well-supported sister taxa included Apanteles , Illidops , Alphomelon , Pholetesor , Rhygoplitis , Iconella , Exoryza , Dolichogenidea , Parapanteles ; Pseudapanteles , Prasmodon ; Glyptapanteles , Cotesia , Protapanteles ; Venanides , Miropotes ; Deuteryxis, Xanthomicrogaster ; Microplitis , Snellenius , and Sendaphne , Dasylagon , Promicrogaster .

Synonymy. The available data in NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information: show that P. circumscriptus ( Fig. 3A) and the recently described species, P. pseudocircumscriptus ( Fig. 3B), for which DNA barcodes are available, differ by only 0.78% in their nucleotide sequences (a difference of 5 base pairs, resulting 99.22% identity). This minimal genetic divergence, combined with their morphological similarities, indicated that these two taxa are the same species, despite previous differentiation based on certain morphological features (( Abdoli & Pourhaji, 2019). Therefore P. psedocircumscriptus is proposed as a new synonym of P. circumscriptus ( Table 3). Notably, it is mentioned that Pholetesor circumscriptus exhibits some variation in colouration, particularly in the legs and metasomal segments, depending on the region, especially in the Old World ( Whitfield, 2006).