Genus: Halictophagus Curtis, 1832: 433

Males: Antennae seven-segmented, segments III–VI with lateral flabellae; mandibles short, leathery; maxillae small; tarsi three-segmented, without claws; aedeagus hook- or anchor-shaped; 8th abdominal sternite often elongated. Hosts: Homoptera: Cercopidae, Cicadellidae, Delphacidae, Deltocephalidae, Dyctiopharidae, Eurybrachyidae, Flatidae, Fulgoridae, Hecalidae, Issidae, Ledridae, Lophopidae, Membracidae, Tettigometridae, and Tropiduchidae .

The genus includes over 70 species with a cosmopolitan geographic range. Twenty-three species are known from the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Four of these species: H. callosus Bohart, 1941: 350 (Washington, USA); H. lappidae Oliveira & Kogan, 1960: 183 (Pará, Brazil); H. obtusae Bohart, 1943: 346 (Costa Rica); and H. uhleri Pierce, 1909: 169 (‘Dacota’, USA), are known only from female descriptions. Of the remaining 19 species with known male descriptions, 11 are exclusively Nearctic: H. americanus Perkins, 1905: 105 (southern USA); H. barberi (Pierce, 1908): 84 (New Mexico, USA); H. bidentatus Bohart, 1941: 147 (central and western USA); H. forthoodiensis Kathirithamby & Taylor, 2005: 2 (Texas, USA); H. jordani (Pierce, 1952): 5 (southwestern USA); H. mackayi (Bohart, 1937): 103 (Saskatchewan, Canada, and Kansas, USA); H. omani Bohart, 1943: 345 (southwestern USA); H. oncometopiae (Pierce, 1918): 473 (southern and southwestern USA); H. philaroniae Bohart, 1946: 202 (Nebraska, USA); and H. serratus Bohart, 1943: 351 (central USA). Seven species were described from the Neotropical region: H. ararensis Trois, 1988: 466 (São Paulo, Brazil); H. besucheti Luna de Carvalho, 1978: 355 (Sta. Catarina, Brazil); H. chilensis Hofman, 1965: 36 (Chile); H. desantisi (Remes Lenicov, 1970): 36 (Argentina); H. lopesi Oliveira & Kogan, 1959: 227 (Bahia, Brazil); H. naulti Kathirithamby & Moya- Raygoza, 2000: 1039 (Morelos, Mexico); and H. variatus Kinzelbach, 1971b: 154 (Guatemala) . Two species were recorded from both zoological regions: H. acutus Bohart, 1943: 352 (North and Central America); and H. insularum (Pierce, 1908): 84 (central and western USA, West Indies and Argentina).