The Afrotropical braconine genus Dioxybracon Granger with descriptions of four new species and new generic synonymy

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe braconine parasitoid wasp genus Dioxybracon Granger, 1949 was known from a single species, D. bimucronatus Granger, from Madagascar. Three new species from the African mainland are described and illustrated, and a key provided to enable identification of Afrotropical species. The new species are D. maridadi Quicke & Butcher sp. n. from Uganda, D. aurumoram Quicke & Butcher sp. n. from Ghana and D. vannoorti Quicke & Butcher sp. n. from South Africa. D. bimucronatus is redescribed and illustrated photographically, and is recorded from the Aldabra Atoll for the first time. The morphology of the new species considerably blur the boundary between Dioxybracon and Pedinopleura van Achterberg, 1984, described species of which are from Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia. In particular, we note that the holotype of D. bimucronatus differs from its redescription in having tergites 4–6 with deep basal grooves rather than shallow ones, a state used previously to differentiate it from Pedinopleura. Here we therefore formally synonymise Pedinopleura with Dioxybracon.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EE7CF371-A335-4DDF-96AA-F0BE9DDFADEA