Illidops scutellaris (Muesebeck, 1921)

Fernandez-Triana, Jose L., Whitfield, James B., Rodriguez, Josephine J., Smith, M. Alex, Janzen, Daniel H., Hallwachs, Winnie D., Hajibabaei, Mehrdad, Burns, John M., Solis, M. Alma, Brown, John, Cardinal, Sophie, Goulet, Henri & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2014, Review of Apantelessensu stricto (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica, with keys to all described species from Mesoamerica, ZooKeys 383, pp. 1-565 : 12

4. Illidops scutellaris (Muesebeck, 1921) comb. rev.

Apanteles scutellaris Muesebeck, 1921: 533.

Illidops scutellaris (Muesebeck). Papp 1988: 150.

Apanteles scutellaris Muesebeck. Austin and Dangerfield 1992: 9; Whitfield 1995: 247; van Achterberg 2003: 29.

Remarks.

After examining the holotype (NMNH), we consider this species as belonging to Illidops , as pointed out a quarter of a century ago by Papp (1988). Papp transferred the species from Apanteles to Illidops in his treatment of the European fauna, when he adopted the then recent reclassification of Microgastrinae by Mason (1981). Strangely, his action was overlooked, ignored or rejected by the taxonomic community, and even authors following the Mason system of genera (e.g., Austin and Dangerfield 1992, Whitfield 1995) did not treat the species as Illidops but kept it as Apanteles . Van Achterberg (2003) considered Illidops as a subgenus of Apanteles , and transferred all of the European species, including Illidops scutellaris , back to Apanteles . All of the character defining Illidops (as outlined in the above section "Definition of the genus Apanteles sensu stricto") are present in Illidops scutellaris , and thus we here transfer the species Apanteles scutellaris back to Illidops .