Ooencyrtus Ashmead

Guerrieri, Emilio, 2006, Review of the encyrtid (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae) parasitoids of Dryinidae (Hymenoptera, Chrysidoidea, Dryinidae): second contribution and description of a new species of Cheiloneurus, Journal of Natural History 40 (41 - 43), pp. 2395-2401 : 2396

Genus Ooencyrtus Ashmead

Ooencyrtus Ashmead, 1900 . Type species: Encyrtus clisiocampae Ashmead

This genus includes about 200 species that are mainly ooparasitoids of Lepidoptera and Hemiptera . One species, i.e. Ooencyrtus destructor (Perkins) ( Perkins 1906) , has been reared from dryinids. This species, initially described under Echthrodryinus , was extensively described and figured by Gordh and Trjapitzin (1978) and, eventually, transferred to Ooencyrtus by Noyes and Hayat (1984). Ooencyrtus can be readily separated from Cheiloneurus by a number of characters, including the marginal vein of fore wings that is never more than 2× as long as broad (at least 4× in Cheiloneurus ). On the other hand, Ooencyrtus is very similar to Helegonatopus , from which it can be separated by having a posteriorly expanded mesospleuron and axillae separated medially. However, even these features sometimes fail, suggesting that further taxonomic study is needed to verify the status of these genera.