Phaenodus Foerster

Belokobylskij, Sergey A. & Kula, Robert R., 2012, Review of the brachypterous, micropterous, and apterous Braconidae of the cyclostome lineage (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea) from the Palearctic Region 3240, Zootaxa 3240 (1), pp. 1-62 : 29

Genus Phaenodus Foerster

Phaenodus , a genus of 28 species, is represented in all zoogeographic regions ( Yu et al. 2005), and both sexes are macropterous in most species. The wings are sometimes slightly shortened in some species (e.g., Phaenodus pallipes Foerster “forma” rufigaster (Dahl), see Belokobylskij 1986). In this case discovery of the distinctly brachypterous P. achterbergi from the Canary Islands, the only species in the genus known to exhibit brachyptery, microptery, or aptery, is undoubtedly interesting and narrows the morphological differences between Pambolus and Phaenodus .

Pambolus and Phaenodus mainly differ as follows: the females of Pambolus are always brachypterous or micropterous, and the males are always macropterous (vs. females always, and males usually, macropterous in Phaenodus ); the males of Pambolus always lack the second radiomedial vein (vs. second radiomedial always present in Phaenodus ); the vertex, temple, and mesopleuron are usually granulate in Pambolus (vs. usually smooth in Phaenodus ). The placment of P. achterbergi in the genus Phaenodus is rather putative given complete reduction of the wing veins behind the pterostigma and overall wing size reduction in the male. However, P. achterbergi has the temple and mesopleuron smooth, conditions usually found in species of Phaenodus (Belokobylskij 1986) . Therefore, the first author considers it a species of Phaenodus . Guerrero and Koponen (2000) reported P. achterbergi females, but we have not yet examined those specimens to confirm their identities.