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[Vol. 92 
biogeographic pattern. Eight species (A. paitensis, T. metallicus, T. 
carrascoi, T. agalma, T. aegla, T. aglaus, T. imperator, and T. 
escomeli ) have not been collected outside the zone and probably 
constitute endemics. Three additional species are known from the 
Desert. Trachysphyrus cleonis is a high-Andean element that ranges 
at least as far inland as Cuzco, Peru; T. venustus extends widely 
over the Altiplano and Puna in Peru, adjacent Chile, Bolivia, and 
northwest Argentina. In contrast, T. viridis ranges from southern 
Peru to Patagonian Argentina, with a preference for Subandean 
Desert and Chaco habitats. Solbrig (1976: 34-5), notes that many 
Coastal Desert plants, like the ichneumonid Trachysphyrus viridis, 
show Chaco and Subandean affinities (e.g., Geoffroea decorticans, 
Prosopis chilensis, Acacia caven, Bulnesia retama, and Larrea 
divaricata). Such disjunct geographic patterns probably demon- 
strate that the Argentine Chaco and the Peruvian-Chilean Coastal 
Desert were not always so rigorously separated, physically and cli- 
matically, as has been the case during the Pleistocene and much of 
the later Tertiary. 
Taxonomy and Relationships 
Trachysphyrus and Aeliopotes are confined to subequatorial 
South America. The latter is a Coastal Desert endemic. The former 
has approximately 20 species distributed from Ecuador to Tierra del 
Fuego in Andean, subtropical, temperate, and Neantarctic habitats. 
Of these 20, at least 10 are confined (in Peru, Bolivia, north Chile, 
and northwest Argentina) to the Andean Puna and Altiplano 
between 2800 m and more than 4000 m, and 7 of these seem re- 
stricted to the western Puna. 
The Trachysphyrus- Aeliopotes complex includes large mesos- 
tenines with uniformly dark wings; no white markings on the meso- 
soma; a metallic (blue, green, purple, etc.) or black and red ground 
color; the notauli strong and usually more than half the length of the 
mesoscutum; the mesoscutal surface punctured but shining; the dis- 
cocubitus gently arched to a little angled; the mediella straight; the 
axillus located halfway between the anal margin of the hind wing 
and the submediella; the propodeal spiracle elongate; the 2nd gastric 
tergite polished or mat but never strongly punctured; and the ovi- 
positor strong, elongate, moderately compressed, straight to a little 
upcurved and with a distinct nodus. Other features diagnostic for 
