Aridelus Marshall, 1887

Fujie, Shunpei & Maeto, Kaoru, 2022, The genus Aridelus Marshall (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Euphorinae) from Japan, with description of a new species, ZooKeys 1092, pp. 105-122 : 105

Genus Aridelus Marshall, 1887

Aridelus Marshall, 1887: 66; Papp 1965: 181; Shenefelt 1969: 11; Shaw 1985: 309; Chou 1987: 21; Chen and van Achterberg 1997: 11; Belokobylskij 2000: 362.Synonyms are presented in Shenefelt (1969) and Shaw (1985).

Type species

(by monotypy). Aridelus bucephalus Marshall, 1887.

Diagnosis.

Head transverse; antenna filiform or moniliform, with 18 segments, its terminal segment with an apical spine; maxillary palp with 6 segments; labial palp with 4 segments; occipital carina complete or absent mediodorsally for a long distance, rarely completely absent, ventrally joining hypostomal carina; frons punctate or smooth with a median carina extending to frontal ocellus; face wider than clypeus in female; lower clypeal margin usually indented medially, rarely rounded; malar suture usually absent; mandibles overlapping each other; mesonotum, mesopleuron, and propodeum mostly areolate; petiolar notch extending nearly to mesocoxal insertions; parastigma large; vein 1-SR of fore wing absent to rarely shortly present and thickened; vein 3-SR of fore wing absent to distinctly present; vein 1-R1 of fore wing short; end of vein SR1 of fore wing much closer to pterostigma than to apex of wing; vein r-m of fore wing present; veins SR and 2-M of hind wing present, darkly pigmented; first metasomal tergite about 3/4 times as long as remainder of metasoma and completely fused ventrally; third tergite nearly reaching end of metasoma, following segments hidden; second and third tergites ventrally overlapping, without lateral fold; ovipositor and its sheath shortly exposed.

Distribution.

Cosmopolitan and the most diverse in tropical regions ( Yu et al. 2016).

Bionomics.

Endoparasitoids of nymphs and adults of Acanthosomatidae , Pentatomidae , Plataspidae , and Scutelleridae ( Shaw et al. 2001), and of Alydidae (present study). Usually diurnal, but a few species were collected at night in light traps (e.g., A. dubius in the present study).