A MOBAT analysis of species diversity in the Phanuromyia galeata group (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae)

The genus Phanuromyia (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae: Telenominae) is the most basal group within Telenominae sensu stricto (Taekul et. al. 2013).  For investigation of the placement of Telenominae within the Platygastroidea, it is important to include representatives of basal taxa in order to try to minimize long-branch attraction artifacts. The galeata species group is widespread across South and Central America, and its members are all believed to be egg parasitoids of Auchenorrhyncha.  To this point, the diversity of Phanuromyia remains largely unexplored: all species recognized were undescribed prior to this study.  This work used a MOBAT approach (morphology-based alpha taxonomy) to develop initial hypotheses of species delimitations, extended-focus imaging, identification tool development, and a preliminary phylogenetic analysis based on morphological characters.