Didyctium Riley, 1879

Noort, Simon van, Buffington, Matthew L. & Forshage, Mattias, 2015, Afrotropical Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 493, pp. 1-176 : 93-94

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Didyctium Riley, 1879

Remarks.

Among the most common genera of eucoilines in the Afrotropical region (yet not recorded by Quinlan). Not always certainly distinguished from Ganaspis , Hexacola and Endecameris .

Diagnosis.

Didyctium are usually recognisable through the combination of a concave scutellar plate and the characteristically half-open marginal cell. Furthermore, unlike in typical representatives of the closely related Ganaspis , the head is transverse (not deep), the mesosoma is short (propodeum not extended), the coxae bear small hair tufts (not elongate hairlines), the scutellar plate is relatively small, the lateral bars of the scutellum are striate, and the posterior margin of the metapleuron is straight (not with a circular or elongate incision). However, the diverse Ganaspis may vary in all these traits. Didyctium females usually have very unusual antennae, where the flagellomeres are strongly differentiated into very short annelli and very long club articles. Very small specimens of Didyctium approach the character states of Endecameris , and the boundary between the two genera is uncertain.

Distribution.

Worldwide. Afrotropical records: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (here).

Biology.

Attacks Phoridae and other flies in concealed habitats ( Beardsley 1989, Riley 1879, label data); no host records are from Africa.

Species richness.

Didyctium naivashae (Kieffer, 1913b), comb. n. ( Cothonaspis ) Type in MNHN studied by MF (Kenya, Rwanda)

Numerous African species remain to be described.