ChrisR

Continuing the Hymenoptera theme I have been picking out anything that looks a bit like an evanoid wasp and came across these lovely stephanoids. The Stephanoidea (the only family being Stephanidae) are quite distinctive because they have very round heads with a crown of little thorns around a median ocellus – coupled with the fact that they are very elongate and have 2 distinct costal veins, like their cousins the Evanoidea.

Kees van Achterberg kindly sent me his key to the genera of Stephanidae and it runs to a Hemistephanus sp. and in the revisions of this genus (Aguiar, 1998 & 2004) kindly emailed to me by Alexandre Aguiar it keys to H.erugatus. If this is correct it will be a new country record for this species.

• Achterberg, C, van 2002. A revision of the Old World species of Megischus Brullé, Stephanus Jurine and Pseudomegischus gen. nov., with a key to the genera of the family Stephanidae (Hymenoptera: Stephanoidea). Zoologische Verhandelingen 339:1–206.
• Aguiar, A.P. 1998. Revisão do gênero Hemistephanus Enderlein, 1906 (Hymenoptera: Stephanidae), com considerações metodológicas. Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, 41(2-4):343-429.
• Aguiar, A.P. 2004. Additions to the revision of the genus Hemistephanus Enderlein (Hymenoptera: Stephanidae), with inclusion of four taxa and description of two new species. Pap. Avulsos Zool. (São Paulo) [online]. vol.44, n.2, pp. 13-43

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