Introduction
Numerous monotypic genera exist in Platygastroidea that were created for placement of autapomorphic species. A cladistic perspective on classification emphasizes shared characteristics for taxonomic placement, not derived characters found in a single species. However, many of these genera were erected with little regard for natural classification and did not include phylogenetic analyses to determine if these genera represent independent evolutionary lineages or a cladistic perspective. In the interest of generating a classification system based on monophyletic groups, and minimizing polyphyly, we examined the holotype specimen of T. mopsus to determine if its characters were unique within Telenominae, as posited by Mineo et al. (2009), and therefore indicative of a lineage separate from Trissolcus.
The contributions of the authors are as follows: E.J. Talamas: specimen examination, imaging, manuscript preparation; M. Buffington: manuscript preparation.
Materials and methods
The locality data reported for primary types are not literal transcriptions of the labels: some abbreviations are expanded; additional data from the collectors are also included. The numbers prefixed with “USNMENT” or “B.M. TYPE HYM. ” are unique identifiers for the individual specimens (note the blank space after some acronyms). Details on the data associated with these specimens may be accessed at the following link, http://purl.oclc.org/NET/hymenoptera/hol, and entering the identifier in the form. The taxonomic synopses were generated by the Hymenoptera Online Database (http://hol.osu.edu).
Photographs were captured with a Z16 Leica® lens with a JVC KY-F75U digital camera using Cartograph® software, or from a Leica® DMRB compound microscope with a GT-Vision® Lw11057C-SCI digital camera attached. In both systems, lighting was achieved using techniques summarized in Buffington et al. (2005), Kerr et al. (2009) and Buffington and Gates (2009). Single montage images were produced from image stacks with the program CombineZP®. In some cases, multiple montage images were stitched together in Photoshop to produce larger images at high resolution and magnification. Scanning electron micrographs were produced with a Hitachi® TM3000 desktop scanning electron microscope, and gold/palladium coated specimens were imaged at ‘analysis’ voltage, running in ‘compo’ mode. Full resolution images are archived at the image database at The Ohio State University (http://purl.oclc.org/NET/hymenoptera/specimage) and MorphBank (http://www.morphbank.net).
Collections
This work is based on specimens deposited in the following repositories with abbreviations used in the text:
BMNH Natural History Museum, London, England
OSUC C.A. Triplehorn Insect Collection, Columbus, USA
USNM Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA