Abstract
The ichneumonid parasitoid wasps of the subfamily Rhyssinae are distributed worldwide with the highest species richness focused in the Oriental region (Yu et al. 2016). The total number of species in the subfamily exceeds 450 species. Nevertheless, the Afrotropical region remains poorly studied, numbering only 13 known species, almost a half of which were described recently (Rousse and van Noort 2014; Hopkins et al. 2019). The majority of the Afrotropical rhyssines belong to the genus Epirhyssa Cresson, 1865. The species of the genus are mostly known from the humid part of Equatorial Africa: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Since 2011 an extensive Malaise trap collecting programme has been conducted throughout Kenya by Robert Copeland and coordinated by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi. The present paper provides one of first results from the programme: a description of a new Epirhyssa species from Kenya and, thus expanding the distribution of the genus in Equatorial part of the Afrotropical region eastward (Fig. 1).
References
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Hopkins, T., Roininen, H., van Noort, S., Broad, G.R., Kaunisto, K., Sääksjärvi, I.E. (2019) Extensive sampling and thorough taxonomic assessment of Afrotropical Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) reveals two new species and demonstrates the limitations of previous sampling efforts. ZooKeys, 878, 33–71.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.878.37845
Rousse, P. & van Noort, S. (2014) A review of the Afrotropical Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with the descriptions of five new species. European Journal of Taxonomy, 91, 1–42
http://dx.doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2014.91
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