Biroia Szépligeti, 1900

(Figs 2 A, 6B, 9A)

Biroia Szépligeti, 1900: 62 . Type species: Biroia elegans Szépligeti, 1900, by monotypy; Turner, 1918b: 229 [description]; Parrott, 1953: 199 [catalogue]; Shenefelt, 1970b: 368 [catalogue]; Bhat & Gupta, 1977: 265 [description, catalogue]; Sharkey, 1992: 437 [in tribe Cremnoptini]; Yu et al., 2005 [catalogue]; Sharkey et al., 2006: 557 [phylogeny, in tribe Cremnoptini]; Sharkey et al., 2009: 33 [key, description].

Isoptronotum Enderlein, 1920: 193. Type species Isoptronotum taeiocauda Enderlein, 1920, by original designation; Shenefelt, 1970b: 418 [catalogue]; Bhat & Gupta, 1977: 159 [key, description]; Sharkey et al., 2006: 557 [synonym of Biroia].

Diagnosis. Length: 7–10 mm; colour: body varying from red–orange to yellow (Fig. 9 A); wings infuscate; inter–antennal region with paired carinae or protuberances (Fig. 6 B); frons with incomplete lateral carinae; notauli always absent (e.g., Fig. 3 A); claws cleft, base of claws not pectinate (Fig. 2 A); mid tibial preapical spines absent; pair of longitudinal carinae not present on ventral surface of hind trochantellus; fore wing cell 1–RS present, quadrate and sessile (e.g., Fig. 4 B), vein 2–RS2 absent; ovipositor long, greater than 0.5 metasomal length (e.g., Fig. 9 C).

Comments. Biroia is closely related to Cremnops (Sharkey et al. 2006) from which it can be distinguished by the basal claws being non-pectinate and notauli absent. It is not well represented in Australia and is more diverse in the Oriental region (Bhat and Gupta 1977), with species occurring in Papua New Guinea to which the Australian representatives appear to be most closely allied.

Species richness and distribution. Only four species are known of which one is described. All are from the northeast part of the continent in the Torresian and northern Kosciuskan biogeographic regions.