Plega Navás, 1927

Plega includes 14 species distributed from southeastern United States to southern Bolivia and Brazil (Hoffman 2002; Ohl 2004). Penny (1982b) and Penny & da Costa (1983) respectively studied the fauna of the Amazon basin and Brazil, but no comprehensive review of this genus is currently available. The determination of Neotropical species is consequently often unreliable. In this work we record two species, P. fasciatella and P. hagenella .

Geοgraphical Nο. οf gοnοcοxite

Species grοup Plega spp. Hοst(s) Reference(s)

distributiοn spines

Immature stages of Plega develop mainly on larvae and pupae of Hymenoptera ( Apidae, Colletidae, Crabronidae, Megachilidae and Pompilidae), albeit were also observed feeding on immature stages of other orders: Noctuidae (Lepidoptera), Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera) and Asilidae (Diptera) (Woglum 1935; Linsley & MacSwain 1955; Parker & Stange 1965; Werner & Butler 1965; Penny 1982b; Cambra et al. 2004). In laboratory conditions, MacLeod & Redborg (1982) offered as food immature Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera and indicated that the feeding specificity of the larvae could be more extensive than the studies on this subject suggest. Biological data, distribution and systematics of Plega species are summarized in Table 2.