Phradis Foerster , 1869

Khalaim, Andrey I. & Ruiz-Cancino, Enrique, 2020, Contribution to the taxonomy of Mexican Tersilochinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae), with descriptions of five new species, ZooKeys 974, pp. 1-21 : 1

Genus Phradis Foerster, 1869

Type species.

Thersilochus (Phradis) brevis Brischke, 1880.

A moderately large predominantly Holarctic genus with 20 species in the Nearctic region (including two species from Mexico), ca. 40 species in the Palaearctic region, and several species known from Peru, South Africa, and Australia. In Europe, species of Phradis have been reared from sap beetle larvae ( Coleoptera : Nitidulidae : Meligethes spp.) feeding on rape, but no host record is known for any Nearctic species ( Horstmann 2013a).

Two species of Phradis were known from Mexico until now ( Khalaim and Ruíz-Cancino 2018), and the third species, P. belovi sp. nov., is described from North Mexico in this paper. The genus is extremely rare in Mexico as all known Mexican species are represented by a single holotype. Horstmann (2013a) in his revision of the Nearctic fauna, also noted that many Nearctic species are rarely collected, and six of 18 revised species (33%) are known from only one specimen. A key to three Mexican species of Phradis is provided below.