Ampulicomorpha Ashmead, 1893

Olmi, Massimo, Copeland, Robert S., Guglielmino, Adalgisa & Icipe, 2015, An updated checklist of Dryinidae, Embolemidae and Sclerogibbidae (Hymenoptera) of Kenya and Burundi, with descriptions of thirteen new species, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 55 (1), pp. 333-380 : 366

Genus Ampulicomorpha Ashmead, 1893

ACHTERBERG & KATS (2000) considered Ampulicomorpha Ashmead, 1893 , and Embolemus Westwood, 1833 (Embolemidae) , synonyms. We agree that it is sometimes difficult to assign a male to Ampulicomorpha or Embolemus , because the length and the pigmentation of the veins enclosing the 1SDC cell (and mainly the posterior vein, near 1A vein) are sometimes variable (1SDC closed or open is the only character used for separating the males of the two above genera). However, females are not a problem, because they are brachypterous or micropterous in Embolemus and macropterous in Ampulicomorpha . For the present, we prefer to continue to consider both genera valid, because in most cases they are easily separated and a recent paper by OLMI et al. (2014), based on biology and fossils of Embolemidae , seems to confirm the separation of the two above genera. We agree with ACHTERBERG & KATS (2000) that ‘certainty about this problem will be gained after a thorough analysis of both sexes of the species involved, preferably including DNA analysisʼ.