Microplitis Foerster, 1863

Al-Sabi, Mohammad Nafi Solaiman, Arias-Penna, Diana Carolina, Idrees, Nabila Rayed Nashaat, Al-Jabr, Omar A., Alhudaib, Khalid A. & Almaghasla, Mustafa I., 2023, A new gregarious parasitoid species, Microplitis idreesae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) reared from Mythimna sp. (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), with a key to the species of Microplitis in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 96, pp. 101-120 : 101

Genus Microplitis Foerster, 1863

Microplitis Foerster, 1863: 245. Type species: Microgaster sordipes Nees, 1834, by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Fore wing usually with a large areolet; mesopleuron with epicnemial carina absence; propodeum with reticulated sculpture and often with a strong median longitudinal carina; T1 with a median longitudinal sulcus for most of its length, T2 and T3 unsculptured and separated by a weak suture; ovipositor short; hind coxa small, not surpassing T2, usually not surpassing T1; hind tibial spurs usually shorter than half length of first hind tarsomere; mesoscutum with notauli variable, ranging from weakly impressed (virtually absent indicated by indentations at anterior margin of mesoscutum or by pair of depressions postero-medially) to strongly impressed and coarsely sculptured ( Nixon 1965; Mason 1981; Austin and Dangerfield 1992, 1993; Ranjith et al. 2015; Fernandez-Triana and van Achterberg 2017; Fernandez-Triana and Boudreault 2018).

Comments.

After its establishment, the genus Microplitis has been beset by two problems: taxonomic and nomenclatural instability and an appreciable deficiency of distribution data ( Fernandez-Triana et al. 2020). Microgaster Latreille, was the first genus of Microgastrinae to be described and is the basis for the subfamily name ( Latreille 1804, Mason 1981, Fernandez-Triana et al. 2020). Some species that were described as Microgaster turned out to belong to the group we now call Microplitis . As for the associated geographic data, those reports have either been questioned or are scarce for the vast majority of the species ( Fernandez-Triana et al. 2020).

Microplitis is part of a well-defined but informal group of eight genera that is probably monophyletic ( Fernandez-Triana and Boudreault 2018; Fernandez-Triana et al. 2020). The other seven genera are: Alloplitis Nixon, Gilbertnixonius Fernandez-Triana, Jenopappius Fernandez-Triana, Philoplitis Nixon, Silvaspinosus Fernandez-Triana, Snellenius Westwood, and Tobleronius Fernandez-Triana ( Fernandez-Triana and Boudreault 2018; Fernandez-Triana et al. 2020). Within this group of genera, Microplitis most resembles Snellenius , and the two genera have been considered closely related.