1985] 
Shaw & Edgerly — New braconid genus 
507 
Doryctinae. However, according to van Achterberg (pers. comm.) 
the stout foretibial pegs of Doryctinae are probably related to living 
in wood or other hard substrates as larvae. Thus, it might be 
expected that a species not associated with larvae in wood has no 
distinct pegs (a secondary loss). 
Aside from the above mentioned similarities, Sericobracon agrees 
with the Doryctinae in several additional characters. These include: 
hindcoxa with an anteroventral tubercle, dorsope present, and 
paralysis of the host prior to egg deposition. 
Most Doryctinae are parasites of wood-boring beetle larvae; 
however, Marsh (1982) notes that Heterospilus show an unusually 
wide range of host associations across three insect orders: Coleop- 
tera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera. In nearly all cases the hosts 
have cryptic boring habits, usually in plant stems or branches. If 
Sericobracon is closely related to Heterospilus, then the host shift to 
Embiidina may not be so unusual. It is simply a shift to a phyloge- 
netically unrelated host, which occurs in the same microhabitat. 
Sericobracon arimaensis, new species 
(Figs. 1, 2, 4) 
Holotype. Female, Trinidad: Arima valley, northern range, 4 
miles north of Arima, Simla Research Station, on silk webs of 
embiid Clothoda urichi, April 1984, (J. S. Edgerly). [Ithaca] 
Description of the holotype female: Body length 3.0 mm; flagel- 
lum 20-segmented; malar space 1/3 eye height; scutellar furrow 4- 
foveate; apical area of propodeum (within the areola) rugose (Fig. 
2); first tergum 3/4X as long as wide at apex, transversely striate 
basomedially (Fig. 4); tergum 2 longitudinally striate especially 
anteriorly; ovipositor length 1.1X metasoma length. 
Color: Head golden brown except ocellar triangle black; flagel- 
lum beyond F4 dark brown; palpi pale white; mesosoma golden 
brown except metanotum, metapleuron, and propodeum entirely 
black; scutellar disc and mesopleuron suffused with black; legs pale 
yellowish brown; wing venation dark brown; metasoma yellowish 
brown except tergum 1 and base of tergum 2 entirely black; terga 
3-5 mostly suffused with black; ovipositor sheaths dark brown. 
Paratype females: Essentially same as holotype except scutellar 
furrow 6-foveate, tergum 2 more coarsely rugose posteriorly, and 
tergum 3 sometimes entirely black. 
