A RECLASSIFICATION OF 



THE TRIBE MICROGASTERINI 



(HYMENOPTERA : BRACONIDAE) 



By G. E. J. NIXON 



Introduction and Acknowledgements . 

 Terminology ....... 



The Subfamily Microgasterinae 

 The Limits of the Subfamily Microgasterinae 

 Key to Genera and Tribes of Microgasterinae 

 Tribe Microgasterini ..... 



References ....... 



Index ........ 



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ii 



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 272 



275 



SYNOPSIS 



The subfamily Microgasterinae is taken as being composed of two tribes, the Cardiochilini 

 and the Microgasterini, together with a few isolated genera. Apart from a brief initial dis- 

 cussion of the isolated genera, the work is devoted to a study of the Microgasterini. This 

 tribe is keyed to generic level with the inclusion of 8 new genera. The largest genus, Apanteles, 

 is broken down into 44 species-groups, of which 19 are worked out to species-level. Micvogaster 

 of authors is divided into several genera, of which three have been lifted out of synonymy. 

 The Microgaster-group of genera has received a treatment similar to that of Apanteles, the 

 largest of them, Protomicroplitis, being split into 20 species-groups, of which 10 are keyed to 

 species. Altogether, 360 species are dealt with. 



INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 



Because of their economic significance and the frequency with which they are bred 

 from their lepidopterous hosts, the Microgasterinae have come to occupy a somewhat 

 special position among the Braconidae. It cannot be said, however, that their 

 classification has ever been sufficiently stable to accommodate the many hundreds of 

 species that have been described. The weight of information concerning a new 

 species has thus tended to shift onto knowledge of its host rather than rest securely 

 on an awareness of what characterises the species as morphologically distinct. 



This weakness was recognised by the late D. S. Wilkinson as is amply shown by the 

 painstaking papers he published with great frequency between 1927 and 1941. The 

 most ambitious of these were his " Revision of the Ethiopian species of Apanteles " 

 which appeared in 1932 and the posthumous " Palearctic species of Apanteles ", 

 published in 1945. 



The former of these two works is important for it embodied Wilkinson's ideas on 

 how best the genus Apanteles could be subdivided for the practical purpose of finding 



