Revision of the endemic Afrotropical genus Tetractenion (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) with an identification key to genera of Banchinae for the region

Abstract

The Afrotropical banchine fauna comprises 12 genera: Apophua Morley, Atropha Kriechbaumer, Cryptopimpla Taschenberg, Exetastes Gravenhorst, Glyptopimpla Morley, Himertosoma Schmiedeknecht, Lissonota Gravenhorst, Sjostedtiella Szépligeti, Spilopimpla Cameron, Syzeuctus Förster, Tetractenion Seyrig, and Tossinola Viktorov. A well-illustrated revised key to the genera using high definition images is provided, and the endemic Afrotropical genus Tetractenion is revised, previously represented by two described species. Four new species are described: T. ibayaensissp. nov., T. pascalisp. nov., T. pseudoluteasp. nov., and T. roseisp. nov. The first species-level identification key is provided for this rare genus. Based on morphological attributes the hypothesis is presented that the species in this genus are probably nocturnal. All images and online interactive Lucid keys are available at: www.waspweb.org and the associated underlying data is made available as Suppl. materials 1, 2 LIF3 files to this paper for inter-exchange with other key production software.