Laelius Ashmead

Waichert, Cecilia & Azevedo, Celso O., 2009, Phylogenetic analysis of Rhabdepyris (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) and redefinition of generic limits based on morphological characters, Zootaxa 2284, pp. 1-29 : 25-26

Laelius Ashmead

Laelius Ashmead, 1893 , Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., 45: 50–52. Type species: Laelius trogodermatis Ashmead. Original designation.

Paralaelius Kieffer, 1906 , Ann. Soc. Sci. Bruxelles, 29: 106, 129. Type species: Bethylus pedatus Say. Subsequent designation by Kieffer, 1914, Das Tierreich, 41: 283. Synonym designation by Muesebeck & Walkley, 1951, In C. W. F. Muesebeck, K. V. Krombein & H. K. Townes, Hymen. Syn . Cat., 2: 729. [Not examined].

Diagnosis. They are small size; black coloration; head, thorax, wings, and often femora with long and thick black setae. Mandibles with 4 or 5 apical teeth; clypeus with median lobe trapezoidal with median dental apex, without lateral lobes; front large and with prolonged malar space; eyes gibbous. Pronotum with smooth contours, disc rounded off anteriorly and laterally, not carinate, much broadened behind; notauli fine and often incomplete (sometimes similar to small foveae); propodeal disc carinate laterally and posteriorly, posterolateral angles sometime foveolate; mesopleuron surrounded by prepectal and postpectal carina, usually foveolate basally, with small pit. Fore wing with stigma longer than the short basal vein, latter reaching subcosta close to base of stigma; hind wing boarded with thick setae, radial vein short or long.

Comments and character discussion. Laelius was originally described by Ashmead (1893) to include four species and it was characterized by having a short radial vein (character 71). Rhabdepyris was separated from Laelius by Evans (1965a) for the long radial vein. Evans (1965a) constituted and characterized the nominate subgenus without studying the type-species or any other previously identified species. All the species described in subgenus Rhabdepyris , except for the type species, are only described from the Americas. However, the non-American species of Laelius can have a long radial vein. Laelius is now recognized by the trapezoidal clypeus with median dental apex (4), by the front with prolonged malar space, the large front and the gibbous eyes (11), by the fine and incomplete notauli (sometimes similar to small foveae) (28, 29), by the long and thick body setae (44, 45), and by the hind wing boarded with thick setae (74).

Mesopleuron. It is usually punctuated or foveolate at the lower portion. The fovea is shallower and more rounded than in Anisepyris and Chlorepyris . The prepectal carina is usually punctuated (47); the mesopleural fovea is apparently absent, visible only as a pit; the mesopleural pit is deep (51). The episternal groove is wellmarked (55) and scrobiculate (56); the sub-tegular groove is complete; the anterior-superior fovea (53) is shallow and small (54).

Variation. The notauli of Laelius from Japan are fine, shallow and almost complete. Some specimens can be more carinate, with many fovea and grooves (mostly on the mesopleuron). Some examples of Laelius from Madagascar (see Barbosa & Azevedo, 2009) vary by having an almost smooth mesopleuron.