Bernardo F. Santos

The ichneumonid subfamily Eucerotinae has been thought to be almost absent from the tropics, with the only known Afrotropical species found in Madagascar. We report the subfamily as present in the mainland Afrotropics and describe a new species, Euceros ibex Hopkins, Nascimento & Santos, sp. nov ., from Uganda and Cameroon. The subfamily was likely not observed in the mainland Afrotropics before because of low abundances and insufficient sampling. More Eucerotinae likely remain to be discovered in tropical Africa and Asia, although tropical America may genuinely have few eucerotine species. Much more extensive sampling will be needed before it is possible to make confident estimates of how eucerotine diversity is distributed globally.

The ichneumonid subfamily Eucerotinae has been thought to be almost absent from the tropics, with the only known Afrotropical species found in Madagascar. We report the subfamily to be present in the mainland Afrotropics, and describe a new species, Euceros species 1 from Uganda and Cameroon (name not yet shown in preprint). The subfamily had likely not been observed in the mainland Afrotropics before due to low abundances and insufficient sampling. More Eucerotinae likely remain to be discovered in tropical Africa and Asia, although tropical America may genuinely have few eucerotine species. Much more extensive sampling will be needed before it is possible to make confident estimates of how eucerotine diversity is distributed globally.

The phylogeny of the Old World genus Stenarella Szépligeti is investigated using data from genomic ultraconserved elements. Thirteen species from the four biogeographic regions where the genus occurs were included in the analyses. The resulting trees corroborate the monophyly of Stenarella and show substantial biogeographic structure within the genus, with three major clades corresponding to species occurring in the Afrotropical, Palearctic and Oriental–Australasian regions. The Afrotropical component of the genus is represented by fifteen species, while outside of the Afrotropics there seem to be only three species, each with very wide geographic distribution. The taxonomic limits of the genus are reviewed, and an updated diagnosis is provided. A total of eighteen species are recognized as valid, of which twelve are described as new: S. aureasp. nov., S. bugalanasp. nov., S. delicatasp. nov., S. favillasp. nov., S. fenestralissp. nov., S. hopkinsisp. nov., S. katangasp. nov., S. natalinasp. nov., S. nigriscutasp. nov., S. nigromaculatasp. nov., S. saaksjarvisp. nov., and S. vannoortisp. nov. An updated identification key to the species of the genus is provided, as well as diagnoses, redescriptions, and new distribution records for the previously known species.

The ichneumonine genus Heinrichiellus Tereshkin is reported for the first time from the Oriental region. Three new species (Heinrichiellus natgeo Ranjith & Broad, sp. nov., Heinrichiellus vedani Ranjith, sp. nov. from India and Heinrichiellus brevispinus Ranjith & Broad, sp. nov. from Thailand) are described. A revised generic diagnosis and an identification key to the known species are provided. Additionally, the systematic placement of the genus within the subfamily Ichneumoninae is proposed for the first time based on data from four genes.

Latitudinal diversity gradients are a key concept in biodiversity science, but the available data are skewed towards large-bodied, charismatic taxa. To address this bias, we analyzed DNA barcode data for 1.35 million specimens of flying insects collected using 101 Malaise traps in 27 countries across six continents. We identify those ten families that consistently contribute more than half of all specimens and species across climates, habitats, and continents. Contrary to canonical expectations, five families have inverse or non-significant latitudinal gradients while the remaining five exhibit only weak to average gradients compared to 470 other terrestrial datasets. Furthermore, precipitation seasonality, rather than temperature, emerged as the strongest climatic correlate. Overall, we thus not only reveal a surprising convergence in the globally dominant insect clades but also illustrate that key textbook concepts in macroecology need testing for poorly studied invertebrate taxa that contribute most of Earth’s animal biodiversity and may behave unexpectedly.

The Earth BioGenome Project has the extremely ambitious goal of generating, at scale, high-quality reference genomes across the entire Tree of Life. Currently in its first phase, the project is targeting family-level representatives and is progressing rapidly. Here we outline recommended standards and considerations in sample acquisition and processing for those involved in biodiverse reference genome creation. These standards and recommendations will evolve with advances in related processes. Additionally, we discuss the challenges raised by the ambitions for later phases of the project, highlighting topics related to sample collection and processing that require further development.

Despite significant advances in alpha level taxonomy in the past few decades, the higher‐level phylogeny of flat wasps (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) remains poorly explored. Herein we provide the first phylogenomic assessment of the family based on data from ultraconserved elements for 96 species in 61 genera of the family, with material from 29 countries and all biogeographic regions. Dataset cutoffs including ultraconserved element loci recovered for 50 and 70% of terminals resulted in matrices with 1513 and 451 loci, which were analysed in both parsimony and maximum likelihood frameworks. We also provide the first analyses of divergence dating for the family based on the calibration of 12 nodes. All analyses recovered the Bethylidae as a monophyletic group and estimated the origin of the family at around 143 Ma. The results suggest that all extant subfamilies had already diversified by the Late Cretaceous. All topologies suggest that Glenosema and Chilepyris form a clade separate from other Scleroderminae; owing to the morphological distinctiveness of each genus, we propose that they are accommodated in two new subfamilies, Glenoseminae subf. nov. and Chilepyrinae subf. nov. The monotypic sclerodermine genus Galodoxa was consistently recovered within Epyrinae and is transferred to the latter subfamily.

Wandering spiders (genus Phoneutria) hold a prominent position as some of the world’s most medically significant venomous arachnids, especially in Brazil. In this study, we record and illustrate for the first time, the Darwin wasp Camera thoracica (Szépligeti, 1916) as a natural enemy of the ctenid Phoneutria nigriventer (Keyserling, 1891). Furthermore, we provide a description of the previously unknown male wasp, update and standardize the description of the female, and provide biological notes.

To correct errors in previous catalogs and update the Brazilian fauna, thirty-five species of Darwin wasps erroneously reported for Brazil are removed from the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna, belonging to the following subfamilies: Anomaloninae (2 species), Banchinae (1), Campopleginae (8), Cremastinae (2), Cryptinae (8), Phygadeuontinae (3), Pimplinae (8), Tersilochinae (2), and Tryphoninae (1). Most species were incorrectly cataloged due to an incorrect interpretation of the species list created by Costa Lima in 1962, which mentions species occurring in neighboring countries but does not confirm their presence in Brazil. Thus, the Brazilian fauna of Ichneumonidae currently corresponds to 234 genera and 1,038 species.