Horismenus Walker

Pikart, Tiago G., Costa, Valmir A., Hansson, Christer, De Cristo, Sandra C. & Vitorino, Marcelo D., 2017, A survey for potential biological control agents of Pereskia aculeata Miller (Cactaceae) in Brazil reveals two new species of Horismenus Walker (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), Zootaxa 4272 (3), pp. 430-438 : 431

Horismenus Walker

Horismenus Walker is one of the largest genera of Eulophidae with 414 known species, of which most were only recently described ( Hansson 2009; Hansson et al. 2011; Narendran et al. 2011; Hansson et al. 2014; Pikart et al. 2015). The genus occurs almost exclusively in the New World, except for Horismenus absonus Narendran & Girish Kumar (India) and Horismenus specularis (Erdös) (Europe) ( Hansson 2009; Narendran et al. 2011). Horismenus species are endoparasitoids with host records known for 25% of the species, which include eggs and larvae of several families of Coleoptera, Diptera , Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Mantodea, Neuroptera and Orthoptera , and eggs/egg sacs of spiders ( Hansson 2009; Hansson et al. 2011; Hansson et al. 2014).

Horismenus is one of the most commonly collected groups of eulophids in tropical America ( Hansson 2009) and also one of the most characteristic, being easily recognized and separated from other genera by the following features: pronotal carina present; scuto-scutellar suture with a fovea; scutellum usually with a median groove and with lateral mesh-rows; propodeum with anterolateral foveae, median carina, submedian grooves and plicae. Hansson (2009) recently revised the genus and provided a key for species identification.