Aegilips Walker in Haliday, 1835

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 27

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Aegilips Walker in Haliday, 1835

Remarks.

Rare in Afrotropical region. The genus is often difficult to separate from Xyalaspis , and requires revision.

Diagnosis.

A variable and rather unsatisfactorily circumscribed genus. Some representatives are quite similar to Xyalaspis while some have more of the superficial appearance of small Figitinae. The scutellum may be pointed posteriorly but forms far less of a spine, and is less strongly foveolate so that a circumscutellar carina may follow all the way around the scutellum. Head is less transversal and triangular than in other Anacharitinae.

Distribution.

Mainly Holarctic, but present locally also in the Neotropical and Afrotropical regions. Afrotropical records: Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Zimbabwe (here).

Biology.

Parasitoids of aphidivorous Neuroptera larvae ( Fergusson 1986).

Species richness.

Only undescribed species in the Afrotropical region, as Kieffer’s Aegilips capensis (at current state of knowledge) is a Xyalaspis .