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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #308220
Title: Review of Afrotropical Figitinae (Figitidae, Cynipoidea, Hymenoptera) with the first records of Neralsia and Lonchidia for the region

Author
item VAN NOORT, S. - Iziko Museums Of Cape Town
item Buffington, Matthew
item FORSHAGE, M. - Stockholm University

Submitted to: ZooKeys
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/14/2014
Publication Date: 11/10/2014
Publication URL: http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=4227
Citation: Van Noort, S., Buffington, M.L., Forshage, M. 2014. Review of Afrotropical Figitinae (Figitidae, Cynipoidea, Hymenoptera) with the first records of Neralsia and Lonchidia for the region. ZooKeys. 453:37-69.

Interpretive Summary: Parasitic wasps are important biological control organisms especially for the control of invasive, exotic species that are pests in agriculture and forestry. This paper investigates a group of wasps native to Southern and Central Africa that parasitize fly larvae. It provides a better understanding about the evolution of this group and provides species identities and distributions that are essential to well-developed biological control projects. Three species are described as new, and on-line, interactive keys for four genera are made available. Digital color images of all of the species are provided in the paper as well as on-line. Biological control researchers, ecologists and tropical agricultural researchers will find this paper useful.

Technical Abstract: The cynipoid subfamily Figitinae is poorly represented in the Afrotropical region with two genera (Figites Latreille and Xyalophora Kieffer) and six species currently known. Here we record an additional two genera (Neralsia Cameron and Lonchidia Thomson) for the region and describe three new species: Neralsia haddocki sp. nov.; Xyalophora tedjoansi sp. nov.; Xyalophora tintini sp. nov. Benoit’s species described in 1956 are synonymized under Figites aciculatus (Benoit, 1956): Figites effossus syn. nov.; F. favonius syn. nov.; F. furvus syn. nov.; F. fraudator syn. nov. Identification keys to the figitine genera and species occurring in the Afrotropical region are provided. Online interactive Lucid Phoenix and Lucid matrix keys are available at: http://www.waspweb.org/Cynipoidea/Keys/index.htm.