Garudella Buffington & Forshage, 2014

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 114

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Garudella Buffington & Forshage, 2014

Remarks.

Very rare, in Africa only known from a single specimen in the Republic of Congo. The tribal placement of this taxon is uncertain. Key characters make it run to Trichoplastini , but both habitus and a number of other characters are more similar to Cothonaspis , and in the original description it is tentatively placed in Kleidotomini . It may, along with Cothonaspis and Triplasta Kieffer, represent a basal lineage in that tribe, but in the absence of a proper phylogenetic analysis, this remains little more than just a guess.

Diagnosis.

The thick basal part of the pronotal plate and the very robust petiole are unique characters in the Eucoilinae. The overall body shape is similar to Cothonaspis , and the wings are similar to Cothonaspis and a number of other genera ( Rhoptromeris , Trichoplasta , and many Leptopilina ), but Garudella can be separated based on the morphology of the pronotal plate and the uniquely robust propodeal-petiolar complex.

Distribution.

Oriental and Afrotropical regions. Afrotropical records: Republic of Congo.

Biology.

Host unknown.

Species richness.

Garudella afrotropica Buffington & Forshage, 2014 (Republic of Congo)