Trachysphyrus, Haliday, 1836

Santos, Bernardo F. & Brady, Seán G., 2024, Leveraging museum specimens, genomics and legacy datasets to unravel the phylogeny and biogeography of cryptin wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Cryptini), Zoologica Scripta 53 (3), pp. 338-357 : 354

4.3.11 | Clade J: Trachysphyrus group

Six new genera were added to this almost exclusively Chilean or Andean clade. Most of the species in this group have at some point been placed in the genus Trachysphyrus , later broken up by Porter (1967a, 1967b, 1987) into a profusion of mostly small genera. Caenopelte Porter and Dochmidium Porter seem to be nested within Anacis Porter , with this four-species group appearing as sister to all other members of the clade. The monotypic Nelophia was nested inside the larger genus Phycitiplex . Morphologically, the two genera are similar and are both unusual among members of the Trachysphyrus group in being found in southern South America east of the Andes. The position of this group, nested within a broader background of taxa that essentially occurs west of the Andes, suggests that this may represent a secondary colonization event of the main South American lowlands.

The placement of Periplasma within the Trachysphyrus group may appear surprising given its superficial similarity to Dotocryptus Brèthes (from the Osprynchotus group) in general aspect and sculpturing and particularly in sharing an extremely long ovipositor. However, Porter (1987) had already observed that Periplasma should be only distantly related to Dotocryptus , noticing substantial differences in ovipositor tip structure, propodeal shape and areolation, mandibular proportions and other traits. Hence, the similarity between both genera seems to be another example of striking morphological convergence within Cryptinae .