Revision of Hodostates (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ctenopelmatinae), with a discussion of tribal placement

Abstract

Hodostates Foerster is revised, representing the first comprehensive comparison of Nearctic and European species. Three species are recognized as valid, and the Nearctic Hodostates rotundatus (Davis) is recorded from Canada for the first time. Hodostates schaffneri Hinz is transferred to Lethades Davis, based largely on ovipositor morphology, and is redescribed. Placement in the tribe Pionini is discussed, given the presence of a deep subapical notch in the ovipositor of both New and Old World species of Hodostates. Host records for Hodostates are reviewed.

First record of the genus Lethades Davis, 1897 from the Oriental region, with description of a new species (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ctenopelmatinae)

“…Lethades can be distinguished from all other genera in the Pionini by the combination of the following characters: first flagellomere longer than second; second trochanter of hind leg rounded without a transverse ridge; glymma present; profile of the propodeum nearly rounded with short posterior field; dorsomedian and dorsolateral carinae of the T1 converging at base; ovipositor without subapical notch; cerci parallel-sided and protruding (Townes 1970, Cameron and Wharton 2011). The notaulus varies from absent to deep, but very short, in nearly all described species of Lethades .…”

“…Only Lethades schaffneri Hinz has an elongate notaulus. The latter species was transferred to Lethades based on other characters, especially ovipositor morphology (Cameron and Wharton 2011). …”

“…Two species, Lethades alpinus (Zetterstedt) and Lethades flavifrons (Zetterstedt) were synonymized with Lethades curvispina (Thomson) by Hinz (1996b) and Lethades poloniae Hinz, 1996 was synonymized with Lethades punctatissimus (Strobl) by Horstmann (2001). Cameron and Wharton (2011) transferred Hodostates schaffneri (Hinz) to Lethades based on ovipositor characters. In the Nearctic Region one species, Lethades kukakensis (Ashmead), is known from Alaska, and the other species, Lethades texanus (Ashmead) from Texas (Yu et al 2012).…”

Review of North European species of the genus Lathrolestes (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) with description of one new species from Öland (Sweden)

“…This structure of the ovipositor probably is an adaptation to pierce the mucus cover of the sawfly larva. Most of the Caliroa parasitoids have similar ovipositor with a shallow notch (Kasparyan 1973(Kasparyan , 1990, including Hodostates Förster, 1869 which differs from other Pionini in having slender needle-like ovipositors lacking a notch (Cameron & Wharton 2011).…”