Abstract
The genera Conobregma van Achterberg and Facitorus van Achterberg are recorded from the Afrotropical region and the Indian subcontinent, respectively, for the first time, and two new species are described and illustrated: Conobregma bradpitti Quicke & Butcher, sp. n. from South Africa and Facitorus nasseri Ranjith & Quicke, sp. n. from India. Conobregma bradpitti sp. n. is intermediate between Conobregma which was described originally from the New World, and Asiabregma Belokobylskij, Zaldivar-Riverón & Maetô, which was coined for the S. E. Asian and East Palaearctic (Japanese) species described under the name Conobregma, plus more recently discovered taxa, but the differences between these genera are few and slight. Of the four previously proposed diagnostic characters for separating Asiabregma from Conobregma, the new species shares two with each, and therefore, the two genera are formally synonymised. Facitorus was previously known only from the East Palaearctic region and from S. E. Asia (Japan, Nepal, Taiwan and Vietnam).
Highlights
The genera Conobregma van Achterberg and Facitorus van Achterberg are recorded from the Afrotropical region and the Indian subcontinent, respectively, for the first time, and two new species are described and illustrated: Conobregma bradpitti Quicke & Butcher, sp. n. from South Africa and Facitorus nasseri Ranjith & Quicke, sp. n. from India
The Facitorini were originally described as a tribe in the subfamily Betylobraconinae Tobias, 1979 based on the genera Facitorus van Achterberg from Nepal, China and Taiwan, Conobregma van Achterberg from the USA and Dominican Republic, and Jannya van Achterberg from Colombia and Costa Rica. Despite all taxa placed in the Betylobraconinae being morphologically highly derived with robust femora, and shortened tarsi, moderately to very bulging faces, and curved fore wing vein M+CU they have subsequently been shown not to be monophyletic (Zaldivar-Riverón et al 2006)
Nothing is yet known about the biology of the Facitorina though their similarity to Yelicones, which is a koinobiont larval endoparasitoid of Lepidoptera larvae concealed to some extent in silk webs, suggests that they may have similar biology
Summary
Major range extensions for two genera of the parasitoid subtribe Facitorina, with a new generic synonymy (Braconidae, Rogadinae, Yeliconini). Academic editor: K. van Achterberg | Received 18 January 2016 | Accepted 22 March 2016 | Published 26 April 2016 http://zoobank.org/69D8DB87-2074-418E-9EDB-E7BDB8CD95EA
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