Szelenyiopria Fabritius

Loiácono, Marta, Margaría, Cecilia, Moreira, Denise D. O. & Aquino, Daniel, 2013, A new species of Szelenyiopria Fabritius (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae), larval parasitoid of Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus (Forel) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Brazil, Zootaxa 3646 (3), pp. 228-234 : 229

Genus Szelenyiopria Fabritius

According to Masner and García (2002) the genus is distributed from Argentina to Guatemala. There are nine species described of Szelenyiopria , two from Argentina, one from Uruguay and six from Brazil (Fabritius 1974; Loiácono 1987; Loiácono & Margaría 2000; Loiácono et al. 2000; Loiácono & Margaría 2009). Host records are available for two Szelenyiopria species: S. lucens is known as larval parasitoid of Acromyrmex ambiguu s (Emery) in Uruguay (Loiácono 1987), and S. pampeana (Loiácono) was reared from A. lobicornis Emery in Argentina (Loiácono et al. 2000; Loiácono & Margaría 2009). These diapriines are solitary or gregarious primary parasitoids of larvae and, as far as is known, all are endoparasitoids and presumably koinobionts.

Among the Diapriinae , Diapriini is the only tribe that includes truly symphilic species, some of them remarkably adapted morphologically to life with ants (Lachaud & Pérez-Lachaud 2012). These adaptations include extensive mimicry of the host ants and may include convergences in sculpture, pilosity, color, behavior and biology. Members of the genus Szelenyiopria share no specialized structures known from other myrmecophilic Diapriini , but there is evidence of setae with truncate apices which were considered by Masner and García (2002) to be specialized structures, possibly as outlets for chemical substances. Besides, the most important apomorphic feature of Szelenyiopria species is the presence of these specialized setae on the entire body.