Phylogeny of thePolysphinctagroup of genera (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae; Pimplinae): a taxonomic revision of spider ectoparasitoids

Abstract

Abstract. A cladistic analysis of the Polysphincta genus‐group (= the ‘Polysphinctini’ of authors), a clade of koinobiont ectoparasitoids of spiders, was undertaken using ninety‐six characters for seventy‐seven taxa (sixty‐five ingroup and twelve outgroup). The genus‐group is monophyletic, nested within the Ephialtini as (Iseropus (Gregopimpla (Tromatobia ((Zaglyptus + Clistopyga) + (Polysphincta genus‐group))))). Within the Polysphincta genus‐group, the clade (Piogaster + Inbioia) is sister‐lineage to all other genera. The cosmopolitan genus Zabrachypus is nonmonophyletic, and has been subdivided into a monophyletic Nearctic/Western Palaearctic Zabrachypus s.str. and an Eastern Palaearctic Brachyzapusgen.n., comprising B. nikkoensis (Uchida) comb.n., B. tenuiabdominalis (Uchida) comb.n. and B. unicarinatus (Uchida & Momoi) comb.n. An Afrotropical species placed in Zabrachypus, Z. curvicauda (Seyrig), belongs to Schizopygacomb.n. The monophyly of the cosmopolitan genus Dreisbachia is equivocal, and we consider that species assigned to it are best placed in an expanded Schizopyga (syn.n.). The monobasic Afrotropical genus Afrosphincta is also a synonym of Schizopyga (syn.n.). The newly delimited Schizopyga is the sister‐lineage of Brachyzapus, and these two genera form the sister‐lineage of Zabrachypus s.str. as the monophyletic clade (Zabrachypus + (Schizopyga + Brachyzapus)). The Holarctic genus Sinarachna is monophyletic if the Palaearctic species S. anomala (Holmgren) is excluded and transferred to Zatypotacomb.n. The European species Polysphincta nielseni Roman belongs to the Palaearctic genus Reclinervellus, and (Reclinervellus + Sinarachna) is the sister‐lineage to a monophyletic group of undescribed Asian species herein assigned to a new genus, Chabliseagen.n. All remaining polysphinctine genera form a strongly monophyletic clade, the Polysphincta clade, although the relationship between this clade and the Chablisea and Zabrachypus clades remains an unresolved trichotomy. The Polysphincta clade comprises three lineages as an unresolved trichotomy, a monophyletic Oxyrrhexis, a major group (‘Polysphincta’ (Ticapimpla (Acrotaphus + Hymenoepimecis))) and an Acrodactyla lineage. In the second group, ‘Polysphincta’ is paraphyletic with respect to the other three genera. However, we retain ‘Polysphincta’ as a genus because few species of this very large genus were included in our analysis. We suspect that, when the tropical fauna is better known, it will be possible to subdivide ‘Polysphincta’ into two or more monophyletic taxa. In the third lineage, the Acrodactyla lineage, the Holarctic genus Acrodactyla is monophyletic if the European species A. madida (Haliday) is excluded. Consequently, we erect a new genus Megaetairagen.n. for this species. The monobasic Afrotropical genus Pterinopus is the sister‐lineage to the cosmopolitan genus Eruga. The very large cosmopolitan genus Zatypota seems to be monophyletic if two New World species, Z. parva (Cresson) and Z. gerardoi Gauld, Ugalde & Hanson, are transferred to...

Paracyphononyx scapulatus (Hymenoptera, Pompilidae), a koinobiont ectoparasitoid of Trochosa sp. (Araneae, Lycosidae)

“…The genus-group Polysphincta is well-known to contain exclusively koinobiont ectoparasitoids of spiders (Gauld and Dubois 2006). Yet, knowledge about the hostparasite interactions of Pompilidae family have been summarized in a few studies that provide limited and brief information.…”

Revision of North American species of Clistopyga (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae)

“…According to a recent phylogenetic analysis (Gauld and Dubois 2006) the genus Clistopyga is most closely related to Zaglyptus, with these two genera forming a sister lineage to the monophyletic Polysphincta genus-group (5tribe Polysphinctini), with the genus Tromatobia at the base of this clade (Gauld 1991;Gauld and Dubois 2006).…”

Two new species of Xanthopimpla (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Western Amazonia, with a revised key to the Neotropical species of the genus

“…First, it is biologically one of the most diverse ichneumonid subfamilies (Fitton et al 1988, Gauld 1991 and may be easily divided into several ecological groups (Gauld 1991, Sääksjärvi et al 2004. In addition, many pimpline species are relatively easy to collect by long term Malaise trapping or canopy fogging (Gaston and Gauld 1993, Sääk-sjärvi et al 2003, 2004 and their phylogeny has been well studied at both super-and suprageneric levels (Wahl and Gauld 1998, Gauld et al 2002, Sääksjärvi et al 2004, Gauld and Dubois 2006, Palacio et al 2007.…”