Lepidura Townes, 1971

Araujo, Rodrigo O. & Vivallo, Felipe, 2018, Taxonomic revision of Lepidura Townes, 1971 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Mesochorinae) with the description of three new species, new distribution records and a key to the all known species, Zootaxa 4514 (2), pp. 215-229 : 216

Lepidura Townes, 1971

Lepidura, Townes, 1971 . 85 (Description, figure, keyed). Dasch, 1974. 7, 16 (Identification key, taxonomy, diagnosis, distribution). Lanfranco, 1974. 203 (Listed). Lanfranco, 1980. 79, 80 (Listed). Quicke et al., 1992. 594 (Listed). Wahl, 1993. 378, 380, 381, 384, 386 (Terminal taxon in phylogenetic analysis; taxonomy, distribution, generic identification key). Quicke et al., 2009. 1354 (Listed).

Diagnosis: Dasch (1974) provided a good redescription of the genus, but included some characters that are too general or shared with other mesochorine genera. Herein, Lepidura is considered in a more strict sense, identified by the combination of the following character states: ovipositor sheath stout, scale-shaped; head mostly greenish (except in L. rubicunda , L. tuberosa , L. variegata and L. nigricephala sp. nov.); fore wing with large rhombic areolet; hind wing vein CU/1b present, usually spectral; vein CU1a twice as long as cu-a; median longitudinal carina of propodeum present, but incomplete (except in L. improcera and L. nigricephala sp. nov.); and glymma occupying 0.30 of petiole.

In the following sections we present morphological characters that complement the original descriptions of the species of Lepidura found in Dasch (1974).