Book Description

Abstract: Wasps, Ants, Bees, and Sawflies one of the most familiar and important insects, are scientifically categorized in the order Hymenoptera. Parasitoid Hymenoptera display some of the most advanced biology of the order. Platygastroidea, one of the significant groups of parasitoid wasps, attacks host eggs more than 7 insect orders. Despite its success and importance, an understanding of this group is still unclear. I present here the world systematic revisions of two genera in Platygastroidea: Platyscelio Kieffer and Oxyteleia Kieffer, as well as introduce the first comprehensive molecular study of the most important subfamily in platygastroids as biological control benefit, Telenominae. For the systematic study of two Old World genera, I address the taxonomic history of the genus, identification key to species, as well as review the existing concepts and propose descriptive new species. Four new species of Platyscelio are discovered from South Africa, Western Australia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Four species are considered to be junior synonyms of P. pulchricornis. From nine valid species of Oxyteleia, the new species are discovered throughout Indo-Malayan and Australasian regions in total of twenty-seven species. The genus Merriwa Dodd, 1920 is considered to be a new synonym. To better understanding of the relationships of subfamily Telenominae, I reconstruct the phylogeny based on approximately 3.7 kb of DNA sequence from 4 molecular markers (18S, 28S, COI and EF1-[alpha]) expanding 80 terminals: 6 genera (11 species groups), 5 broad-ranged out group genera. Results are drawn from both parsimony and statistical analyses (Bayesian and Maximum likelihood), and from 6 character coding and partitioning schemes. The molecular evidence showed that the subfamily is not monophyletic: one clade, the Psix group of genera, forms a monophyletic group with species of the tribe Gryonini, subfamily Scelioninae. Monophyletic clades were recovered with strong support including (Psix+Paratelenomus) and Gryon; Telenominae, s.str. (without Gryon and Psix group of genera); Phanuromyia and Telenomus crassiclava species group; Telenomus laricis species group; and Telenomus longicornis species group. The genera Eumicrosoma and Platytelenomus are nested within Telenomus californicus species complex. Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera) is the plesiomorphic host. The species in the clade Phanuromyia + Telenomus crassiclava species group all shared the same host group, Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae and Flatidae). The monophyly of the major genera Telenomus and Trissolcus is not supported; the interrelationships of their component species are largely unresolved.