This paper documents what we consider to be expanding distributions in three genera of Platygastroidea: Platyscelio Kieffer (Scelionidae), Aphanomerus Perkins (Platygastridae) and Tetrabaeus Kieffer (Platygastridae). Platyscelio africanus Risbec is the first record of Platyscelio in the Western Hemisphere (French Guiana). Aphanomerus is a new record for the continental Nearctic region (USA, Los Angeles) and Tetrabaeus is a new record for the Palaearctic (Ukraine, Georgia, and South Korea) and Sino-Japanese (Japan) regions. Tetrabaeus also expands its known distribution in the Nearctic (Canada and Mexico).        Scanning electron micrographs and brightfield images are provided to enhance knowledge of the morphology of these genera, and to make them more easily recognized in the future. Tetrabaeus americanus (Brues, 1909) and Aphanomerus rufescens Perkins, 1905 are redescribed.

Native to China, the chestnut gall wasps Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae) has invaded several countries on three continents in about half a century. To reduce the negative impact on the chestnut industry, the hymenopteran parasitoid Torymus sinensis Kamijo (Hymenoptera, Torymidae) was firstly translocated from China to Japan and then from Japan to other countries. From an agronomic point of view, this classical biological control programme is perceived as a great success story even if in Japan it was overshadowed by evidence of hybridisation with the indigenous species Torymus beneficus Yasumatsu & Kamijo. Based on numerous specimens collected in France and Italy but also in Asia, as well as on published data, we detected molecular and phenotypic signatures of a possible hybridisation. Our results evidenced for the first time that the European stock of T. sinensis has some rare molecular signatures of historical hybridisation that took place in Japan (0.66% of the mitochondrial haplotypes). Our morphometric study also shows that European and Japanese T. sinensis are morphologically intermediate between the two species that hybridised. The identity of the early‐ and late‐season strains of T. beneficus is discussed. Torymus beneficus late‐season strain (TbL) is considered to be the same as T. sinensis and only the early‐season strain (TbE) is the true T. beneficus. Torymus beneficus is morphologically very close to T. sinensis, and the interspecific distance of COI, though large, is comparable with the larger intraspecific variability found in other Chalcidoidea species. Though the two could be regarded as subspecies, for the stability of nomenclature it is better to continue treating them as distinct species.

This study presents the genera Iphitrachelus Haliday, 1836 and Baryconus Förster, 1856 with the species B. graeffei (Kieffer, 1908), I. lar Haliday, 1836 and I. gracilis Masner, 1957 as new records for the Romanian fauna.

Abstract. Andricus glutinosus (Giraud, 1859) is recorded for the first time from Romania. Galls were collected in Bozovici (Caraș-Severin County), Troaș and Vârfurile (Arad County), Almășel and Certeju de Sus (Hunedoara County).

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