Cleruchus Enock, 1909

Huber, John T. & Triapitsyn, Serguei V., 2017, Two genera of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera) new to Africa, a remarkable new species of Anaphes and new generic synonymy, ZooKeys 658, pp. 39-61 : 40-43

Cleruchus Enock, 1909

Bakkendorfia Mathot, 1966. Syn. n.

Douttiella Annecke, 1961. Synonymy under Cleruchus by Noyes & Valentine, 1989: 31.

Eucleruchus Ogloblin, 1940. Synonymy under Cleruchus by Luft Albarracin et al., 2009: 26.

Haplochaeta Noyes & Valentine, 1989. Synonymy under Cleruchus by Lin et al., 2007: 29.

Paracleruchus Yoshimoto, 1971. Synonymy under Cleruchus by Viggiani, 1974: 88.

Stenopteromymar Ferrière, 1952. Synonymy under Cleruchus by Viggiani, 1974: 88.

Type species.

Cleruchus pluteus Enock.

The worldwide genus Cleruchus contains a variety of species known as parasitoids of Coleoptera (Triapitsyn et al. 2013, Barnes 2014). Bakkendorfia contains only one described species, Bakkendorfia musangae Mathot that Mathot (1966) treated as being related to Parallelaptera Enock (now a subgenus of Erythmelus Enock) based on a large hypopygium. While this is one defining feature of Erythmelus , Mathot’s species differs from Erythmelus in many other respects, particularly in the structure of the head and mandibles.

We examined the type series (Fig. 3, holotype slide) and found that Bakkendorfia matches Cleruchus in all its features. We therefore transfer the type species to Cleruchus as Cleruchus musangae (Mathot), comb. n., and illustrate it. Features that define Cleruchus include: posterior ocelli widely separated and close to the eye margins, forming a low ocellar triangle (Fig. 1); frenum transverse and somewhat oval in shape (Fig. 1); head in lateral view with a distinctly bulging face; and mandible with 2 teeth. Females have a short ovipositor (Fig. 2) and large clava almost as long as the relatively short funicle, the individual segments of which are usually more or less quadrate (Figs 1, 2, 4). The most obvious generic feature, a parallel-sided fore wing with few microtrichia on its surface and a slightly widened and curved stigmal vein (Fig. 5), is one that is not always present because the degree of wing development varies considerably among species of Cleruchus . Wingless species have been described ( Yoshimoto 1971, Triapitsyn et al. 2013, Triapitsyn 2014a) and among fully winged species, the fore wing of Cleruchus biciliatus ( Ferrière) has a greatly reduced surface and only two (or sometimes four) long marginal setae and the hind wing is greatly shortened, without marginal setae (Fig. 6).