Aganaspis Lin, 1987

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 92-93

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Aganaspis Lin, 1987

Remarks.

Rare. Aganaspis has been widely confused with Trybliographa ; superficially strikingly similar morphologically, but not closely related ( Fontal-Cazalla et al. 2002, Buffington et al. 2007). On the other hand, it remains uncertain how to delineate Aganaspis from Ganaspis .

Diagnosis.

Large, strongly built, black or darkly brown eucoilines. The genus was originally erected ( Lin 1987) for Oriental species with a very large scutellar plate reaching the posterior end of the scutellum, and a high pronotal plate with an emarginate (bilobed) dorsal rim protruding well over the pronotal-mesoscutal suture. But the exploration of apparently closely related forms, especially in South America, has made the genus far more difficult to circumscribe in terms of unambiguous diagnostic characters, and indeed, blurred the boundaries towards the heterogenous Ganaspis . Most Aganaspis , however, are large and resemble Trybliographa in general habitus, but are easy to distinguish from the latter based on the distinct hairtuft on the metapleural corner, the small and shallow subalar pit, and the modified antennal F1 in males. The posterior metapleural margin is uninterrupted (but sometimes depressed in the middle) and usually somewhat oblique in the ventral part; the metacoxae usually have semi-long hairlines (but sometimes only small tufts); the sctutellar plate is usually very large and the scutellar foveae usually large (but sometimes far more normal sized).

Distribution.

Widespread, but primarily East Asian and Neotropical. Afrotropical records: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Reunion, South Africa, Tanzania (here).

Biology.

Attacks Tephritidae and other fruit-infesting flies ( Wharton et al. 1998, Guimarães et al. 2003).

Species richness.

Aganaspis daci (Weld, 1951) ( Trybliographa ) (widely distributed species, synanthropically spread with an assumed origin in the Oriental region).

Several undescribed species in the region.