Protorhyssalinae Basibuyuk, Quicke, & van Achterberg, 1999

Alvarez-Parra, Sergio, Penalver, Enrique, Delclos, Xavier & Engel, Michael S., 2022, A braconid wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) from the Lower Cretaceous amber of San Just, eastern Iberian Peninsula, ZooKeys 1103, pp. 65-78 : 65

Subfamily † Protorhyssalinae Basibuyuk, Quicke, & van Achterberg, 1999

Protorhyssalinae Basibuyuk, Quicke, & van Achterberg, 1999: 211. Type genus: Protorhyssalus Basibuyuk & Quicke in Basibuyuk et al. (1999), by original designation.

Comments.

Herein we restore the traditional concept of † Protorhyssalinae as recognized by Basibuyuk et al. (1999) and Chen and van Achterberg (2019). Belokobylskij and Jouault (2021) proposed a classification in which virtually all Cretaceous braconids are thrown into a paraphyletic group, rendering † Protorhyssalinae a meaningless grade. Admittedly, restoring † Protorhyssalinae still leaves the group paraphyletic but at least removes the more obviously derived groups and thereby narrows the challenge as to the affinities of the remaining genera. Nonetheless, while Belokobylskij and Jouault (2021) advocated for such a paraphyletic assemblage, they used plesiomorphic features along with autapomorphies to establish the subfamily † Megalyrhyssalinae . Unfortunately, † Megalyrhyssalinae is poorly justified and could be merely an autapomorphic form of the same protorhyssaline grade. By their own reasoning, they should have either not established such a subfamily or further divided † Protorhyssalinae to resolve the paraphyly. Under their conception of † Protorhyssalinae, † Megalyrhyssalinae would be a junior synonym. For now, we recognize the following subfamilies: † Protorhyssalinae, † Seneciobraconinae ( Seneciobracon ), and † Megalyrhyssalinae ( Megalyrhyssalus ), noting that the last may not be sufficiently justified but may well be worth considering once the full phylogeny of the genera comprising these groups is elucidated. Until such time it seems that further alterations of the subfamilial system in the absence of a cladistic framework would be unwarranted.

Included genera and species.

Archaeorhyssalus subsolanus Engel, 2016; Burmabracon gracilens Li, Shih, & Ren, 2021; B. grossus Li, Shih, & Ren, 2021; Diorhyssalus allani (Brues, 1937); Protorhyssalodes arnaudi Perrichot, Nel, & Quicke, 2009; Protorhyssalopsis perrichoti Ortega-Blanco, Delclòs, & Engel, 2011; Protorhyssalus goldmani Basibuyuk & Quicke, 1999; and Utrillabracon electropteron Álvarez-Parra & Engel, gen. et sp. nov. Cretorhyssalus brevis Belokobylskij, 2012, Magadanobracon rasnitsyni Belokobylskij, 2012, and M. zherikhini Belokobylskij, 2012, known from compression fossils, were putatively assigned to † Protorhyssalinae sensu Belokobylskij (2012).