Neralsia Cameron, 1883

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 123-125

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Neralsia Cameron, 1883

Remarks.

Rare in the Afrotropical region. The genus is extremely species-rich in the Neotropical region and has recently been revised in a series of papers by Jiménez et al. (2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006, 2007, 2008a, 2008b); Jiménez and Pujade-Villar (2009); Petersen-Silva and Pujade-Villar (2010); Petersen-Silva et al. (2010) and Pujade-Villar et al. (2006). Neralsia is also common throughout the Nearctic Region, but species limits have not been thoroughly established (Buffington pers. obs.).

Diagnosis.

Neralsia and Xyalophora are the only known figitines in the Afrotropical region with a scutellar spine. Neralsia can be distinguished from Xyalophora by whether or not the notauli are horizontally striate: smooth in Neralsia , striate in Xyalophora (Jimenez et al. 2008). Also, most Neralsia have a longer, more robust scutellar spine than Xyalophora , but in specimens we have examined, this character varies with overall size of the specimen. This genus also resembles some members of Aspicerinae, most notably Prosaspicera , which also possess a distinct scutellar spine, but can be separated from Prosaspicera by the lack of a facial impression on the head (present in Prosaspicera ), and lack of a ligulate metasoma T2.

Distribution.

Mainly Neotropical, but with single species in the Nearctic and the Afrotropical regions. Purported records from the Oriental region and the east Palearctic are unconfirmed. Afrotropical records: Central African Republic, South Africa ( van Noort et al. 2014).

Biology.

Parasitoids of calyptrate Brachycera larvae in decomposing substrates ( Díaz et al. 2000, Thomas and Morgan 1972, Buffington et al. 2012).

Species richness.

Neralsia haddocki van Noort, Buffington & Forshage, 2014 (Central African Republic, South Africa)