Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Figitidae

Prosaspicera Kieffer, 1907

Remarks.

Revised by Díaz (1979) and by Ros-Farré and Pujade-Villar (2006).

Diagnosis.

This taxon is most easily confused with Afrotropical Aspicera, but can be distinguished from that taxon by having a much longer scutellar spine, easily as long as the petiole and distinctly overhanging it (much shorter in Aspicera, not overhanging the petiole). Further, Aspicera has not yet been recorded from equatorial Africa, and appears to be restricted to arid portions of Mediterranean Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula (here). Prosaspicera can, to a lesser extent, be confused with the figitines Neralsia and Xyalophora (all having reasonably well-developed scutellar spines); however, figitines lack the ligulate metasomal T2, and well as the facial impression, and these two characters separate Prosaspicera from figitines with scutellar spines.

Distribution.

Mainly pantropical, but extending into the southern Nearctic and the southeastern Palearctic. Afrotropical records: Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe ( Ros-Farré and Pujade-Villar 2006); South Africa (here).

Biology.

Parasitoid of aphidivorous Brachycera larvae ( Syrphidae: Ros-Farré and Pujade-Villar 2006). USNM has two specimens from Nigeria reared from Paragus ( Syrphidae) on cotton.

Species richness.

Prosaspicera antennata (Benoit, 1956c) ( Aspicera) (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia)

Prosaspicera optiva Quinlan, 1979 (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia)

Prosaspicera paragicida (Benoit, 1956c) ( Aspicera) (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia)

Prosaspicera tropica (Kieffer, 1910d) ( Aspicera) (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zimbabwe)

syn Aspicera africana Kinsey, 1919

syn Aspicera kisantua Benoit, 1956c