Dacnusini Foerster , 1863

Broad, Gavin R., Shaw, Mark R. & Godfray, H. Charles J., 2016, Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Braconidae, Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 8151-8151 : 8151

Dacnusini Foerster, 1863

Notes

The classification of the Dacnusini was revised by Griffiths ( Griffiths 1964, Griffiths 1967a, Griffiths 1967b, Griffiths 1967c, Griffiths 1968a, Griffiths 1968b) in a pioneering treatment that was one of the first applications of explicit phylogenetic methods in taxonomy. It was also unusual in being based on extensive reared material. Griffiths’ classification is followed here although one of the consequences of his strict adherence to phylogenetic principles is that Chorebus and Dacnusa are very large genera. Also, as Griffiths realised, the definition of Exotela is unsatisfactory as it lacks clear apomorphic characters. This group of insects had previously been revised by Nixon ( Nixon 1943, Nixon 1944, Nixon 1945, Nixon 1946, Nixon 1948, Nixon 1949, Nixon 1954), who recognised a greater number of genera, and some authors ( Tobias 1986, Tobias 1998, Perepechayenko 2000, Fischer et al. 2004) have resurrected Nixon’s genera or used them as subgenera. This seems a retrograde step given Griffiths’ clear statements of phylogenetic hypotheses and is not used here. In both Chorebus and Dacnusa , Griffiths defined a series of species groups that with further research should form the basis of better classifications of these genera. Griffiths (1964) gives a key to genera and Wharton (1997) is also very helpful. The Coelinius genus group ( Coelinius , Trachionus , Epimicta , Aristelix , Laotris , Sarops and Synelix ) is generally agreed to be monophyletic and was not revised at species level by Nixon or Griffiths. Distribution data from Griffiths’ and Nixon’s revisions (loc. cit.) and NMS.