The Types of Proctotrupoidea (Hymenoptera) 



in the 



United States National Museum 



1 2 



By Lubomir Masner and Carl F.W. Muesebeck 



There has been increasing activity, in recent years, in the study of 

 the Proctotrupoidea, a very large group of parasitic Hymenoptera, of 

 which the vast majority of species are still undescribed. Several students 

 of the superfamily, particularly in Europe, have been publishing actively 

 on the systematics of the group, and the growing emphasis on biological 

 methods of controlling injurious insects has resulted in an increasing 

 need for reliable identifications. This situation demands a sound under- 

 standing of the groundwork that was laid in the past in order that repeti- 

 tion and confusion may be avoided. The publication of a list of the 

 described genera and subgenera of Proctotrupoidea, with citation of their 

 type-species (Muesebeck and Walkley, 1956), has helped to define the 

 genera and subgenera of this group and to bring about uniformity in the 

 application of these names. 



Another fundamental and essential step is the establishment of the 

 identity of the described species. The type series of some species con- 

 sists of two or more different forms, and the original author has often 

 failed to designate a holotype.lt has become advisable, therefore, to re- 

 view the case for each species and, where necessary, to designate a 

 lectotype as the standard for the species. Unfortunately, the types of 

 species described by some authors, notably Kieffer, have become widely 

 scattered or lost, but large type collections of Proctotrupoidea occur in 

 certain institutions, particularly in the British Museum (Natural History) 

 and the United States National Museum. The senior author studied the 

 proctotrupoid types in the British Museum and in the Hope Department of 

 Entomology at Oxford in 1961 and subsequently (Masner, 1965) published 

 a list of these with appropriate lectotype designations where such ac- 

 tion was required. Under a grant from the National Institutes of Health, 

 he spent several months of 1964 in study of the types of Proctotrupoidea 



Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague. 

 U.S. National Museum. 



