Heterospilus Haliday, 1836

Martínez, Juan José & Diez, Fernando, 2024, Taxonomic notes on some neglected doryctine wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Argentina described by J. Brèthes and E. Blanchard, Zootaxa 5406 (1), pp. 190-200 : 196

Genus Heterospilus Haliday

Heterospilus Haliday 1836 , Ent. Mag. 4: 40. Type species: Rogas (Heterospilus) quaestor Haliday.

Telebolus Marshall 1888 , in: André, Spec. Hym. Eur. Alg. p. 202. Type species: Telebolus corsicus Marshall

Kareba Cameron 1905 , Inv. Pac. 1:50. Type species: Kareba flavipes Cameron

Anacatostigma Enderlein 1920, Arch. Nat. 84: 131. Type species: Anocatostigma paradoxum Enderlein

Harpagolaccus Enderlein 1920 , Arch. Nat. 84: 138. Type species: Harpagolaccus pectinatus Enderlein

Hormiopius Blanchard 1962 , Rev. Inv. Agr. 16: 45. Type species Hormiopius ptericoptophagus (Syn. nov.)

Lituania Jakimavičius 1968, Ent. Obz. 47: 904. Type species: Lituania brachyptera Jakimavičius

Diagnosis: Vertex not sharply angled near orbits; fore wing vein 2RS absent, at least partially, sometimes indicated as a nebulose vein but never as a distinct tubular vein; fore wing first subdiscal cell open at apex, vein 2cu-a absent; basal sternal plate of first metasomal segment 1/4 length of tergum; hind coxa usually with anteroventral tooth or tubercle at base, occasionally with weak tooth; ovipositor not significantly modified; male hind wing veins with an enlarged stigma-like swelling.

The genus Heterospilus is the most diverse in the subfamily Doryctinae and is among the most diverse genera in the family Braconidae . Despite its extreme diversity, Neotropical species are far from being known acceptably. Marsh (2013) described 277 new species from Costa Rica increasing the number of Neotropical species to 306. More recently, eighteen new species were described from Brazil ( Chiletto & Penteado-Dias 2016; Santiago & Penteado-Dias 2019), raising the total number of Neotropical species to 324. The Argentine fauna is remarkably understudied despite the large number of unidentified specimens housed in collections (personal observation). Only two species are formally reported for the country, Heterospilus faustinus Marsh and Heterospilus desantisi (Monetti) ( Yu et al. 2016) .