Gronotoma Foerster , 1869

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 78

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Gronotoma Foerster, 1869

Gronotoma (synonym Eucoilidea Ashmead, 1887)

Remarks.

Rarely collected in Africa. Many African species previously listed in Buffington (2011) are currently moved to Afrostilba Benoit. Holotypes for species listed below have not yet been examined, hence we prefer to leave them in Gronotoma for the time being.

Diagnosis.

Mesopleural triangle gently impressed, dorsal and ventral margins rounded. Lateral pronotal carina present. Notauli present, well developed in most species. Scutellar plate large, glandular pit in center. Hairy ring at base of syntergum absent; metasoma downturned towards ventral position. Most easily confused with Afrostilba and Paradiglyphosema ; distinguished from these genera by the absence of a distinctly impressed mesopleural triangle, and downturned metasoma. Further distinguished from Paradiglyphosema by the possession in the latter of a genal carina and postero-lateral projections on the scutellum.

Distribution.

Worldwide but mainly Holarctic. Afrotropical records: Cameroon, Madagascar, Seychelles, South Africa ( Quinlan 1986), Kenya (here).

Biology.

Parasitoids of leaf-mining and stem-mining Agromyzidae ( Buffington 2011).

Species richness.

(for all the proper species below, types have not been scrutinised, and it is uncertain whether they are true Gronotoma or Afrostilba .)

Gronotoma extraria (Quinlan, 1986) ( Eucoilidea ) (Madagascar)

Gronotoma leptis (Quinlan, 1986) ( Eucoilidea ) (Cameroon)

Gronotoma mauri (Quinlan, 1986) ( Eucoilidea ) (South Africa)

Gronotoma parvula Kieffer, 1910c (Madagascar)

Gronotoma seychellensis Kieffer, 1911a (Seychelles)

Gronotoma sp. (Madagascar, Kenya)