Triraphis Ruthe, 1855

Belokobylskij, Sergey A. & Ku, Deok-Seo, 2025, The species of the genus Triraphis Ruthe, 1855 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rogadinae) in the fauna of the Korean Peninsula, Zootaxa 5715 (1), pp. 106-118 : 107-108

Genus Triraphis Ruthe, 1855

Triraphis Ruthe, 1855: 292 ; Shenefelt 1975: 1207 (as synonym of Pelecystoma ); van Achterberg 1991: 62 (resurrection); Papp 1995: 123; Chen & He 1997: 90; Belokobylskij 2000: 98; Valerio & Shaw 2015: 501 ; Yu et al. 2016; Belokobylskij et al. 2019: 328.

Pelecystoma : Watanabe 1970: 117; Tobias 1971: 218; 1976: 89; van Achterberg 1991: 62.

Type species. Exothecus discolor Ruthe, 1855 (= Pelecystoma tricolor Wesmael, 1838 ), by monotypy.

Diagnosis of the genus. Body small or medium-sized. Head transverse (dorsal view); vertex and temple usually smooth; ocelli often at least weakly enlarged; ocellar triangle with base slightly larger than its sides; frons weakly concave, without median keel or furrow; eyes glabrous, bean-shaped; occipital carina present at most part, distinct, always interrupted dorsally, not joined below with hypostomal carina and separated at short distance; hypoclypeal cavity subcircular, medium-sized; maxillary palp 6-segmented; labial palp 4-segmented; third segment of maxillary palp in female weakly widened, not ungulate. Antenna setiform, multisegmented; scape rather wide and elongated, without transformation; apical segment usually with distinct and elongate apical ‘spine’. Mesosoma short and high; mesonotum anteriorly distinctly and subvertically elevated above pronotum; notauli distinct and crenulate, entirely deep; precoxal sulcus distinct, usually narrow, oblique, straight; prepectal carina distinct and complete; propodeum with or without antero-lateral areas delineated by carinae, lateral tubercles usually present, wide and low. Hind femur long and relatively wide; hind trochanter almost as long as trochantellus; inner distal margin of hind tibia with comb of dense pale setae. Claw of hind tarsus usually with high, wide and acuminate basal lobe. Fore wing radial (marginal) cell usually not shortened; radial vein (r) arising before middle of pterostigma; recurrent vein (m-cu) weakly antefurcal; nervulus (cu-a) almost straight, postfurcal; medial (1-M) and recurrent vein (m-cu) subparallel or weakly convergent posteriorly. In hind wing, hamuli 3; radial (marginal) cell widened in basal half, narrow and subparallel in apical half; submedial (subbasal) cell medium-sized; first mediocubital abscissa subequal, weakly longer or shorter than second abscissa (1-M), nervellus (cu-a) weakly curved; recurrent vein (m-cu) always absent. Metasoma with dorsally visible five–six tergites; second to sixth metasomal tergites with lateral crease and separated laterotergites; first metasomal tergite rather wide and short, with distinct dorsope, dorsal carinae often incomplete and distally not fused to each other, not forming basal subtriangular area; second metasomal suture distinct and curved; second tergite without delineated basal area; ovipositor usually short, only rarely relatively long.

Hosts. Lepidopterans larvae from the genera Euproctis Hübner ( Erebidae ); Acraga Walker ( Dalceridae ); Acharia Hübner , Adoneta Clemens , Alarodia Möschler , Apoda Haworth , Euclea Hübner , Heterogenea Knoch , Isa Packard , Lithacodes Packard , Microleon Butler , Monema Walker , Natada Walker , Parasa Moore , Perola Walker , Phrixolepia Butler , Prolimacodes Schaus , Scopelodes Westwood , Tortricidia Packard , Vipsania Druce ( Limacodidae ); Arawacus Kaye , Ocaria Clench ( Lycaenidae ); Norape Walker ( Megalopygidae ); Emesis Fabricius , Eurybia Illiger , Melanis Hübner , Napaea Hübner ( Riodinidae ); Archips Hübner , Tortrix Linnaeus ( Tortricidae ); Artona Walker , Harrisina Packard ( Zygaenidae ) ( Yu et al. 2016).

Distribution. Nearctic, Neotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic regions.

Remarks. The species of this genus are characterised by distinct intraspecific variation of the body colour. Such pattern consisting of a combination of predominantly yellow or pale brown colour with a different intensity of dark shades (dark brown, dark reddish brown to black) including spots or stripes on the head, mesosoma and metasoma. The use of the colour pattern in the species diagnostic of the genus Triraphis must be used carefully because it can lead to errors in determination. However, because the many Asian species were described with using of the colour pattern (which was also included in the diagnostic key) ( Chen & He 1997) we obliged to use these characters for the species determination before receiving of the genetic data for these species and future estimation of the species limits.