Ceranisus Walker, 1841

Triapitsyn, Serguei V., 2005, Revision of Ceranisus and the related thrips-attacking entedonine genera (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) of the world, African Invertebrates 46, pp. 261-315 : 288

Genus Ceranisus Walker, 1841

Ceranisus Walker, 1841 : vi, pl. N, fig. 2. Type-species: Cirrospilus pacuvius Walker, 1838 , by monotypy. Thripoctenus Crawford, 1911: 233 . Type-species: Thripoctenus russelli Crawford, 1911 , by monotypy. Synonymised under Ceranisus by Graham 1959: 203.

Epomphale Girault, 1915: 211 .Type-species: Epomphale auriventris Girault, 1915 , by original designation. Synonymised under Ceranisus by Boucek 1988: 733.

Ceranisus Walker : Graham 1959: 203, 1963: 270, 271; Boucek & Askew 1968: 137, 138; Boucek 1988: 733, 734; Schauff 1991: 38, 39; Loomans & van Lenteren 1995: 98, 99, 196; Triapitsyn & Headrick 1995: 230; Triapitsyn & Morse 2005: 70.

Diagnosis: Body and appendages usually yellow to dark brown or black; occipital suture present and usually conspicuous (can be straight, sinuate, or angulate); frontal grooves reaching eye at level of anterior (median) ocellus; malar sulcus present and straight in most species, very rarely split (Y-shaped); mandible reduced (without teeth); female flagellum with 2 funicle segments and a distinct clava (usually 2-, very rarely 3-segmented), apical claval segment with an apical spicula in both sexes; male antenna often with a swollen scape, male flagellum with funicle 2-segmented and clava 3-segmented; notauli usually indistinct, sometimes distinct but faint; midlobe of mesoscutum almost always with 2 pairs of setae (except with 1 such pair in most C. russelli (Crawford)) ; anterior margin of scutellum straight; forewing broadened beyond submarginal vein; petiole at most as long as wide, usually notably wider than long.

Biology: Larval parasitoids of various Thripidae (Terebrantia) .

Comments: There seem to be at least four distinct groups of species within Ceranisus : the menes species group, containing C. menes , C. planitianus , and C. udnamtak sp. n. (forewing with a distinct semi-oval bare area at the posterior margin behind base of marginal vein, demarcated anteriorly by a sinuate line of setae; in the species with known males, scape of male antenna relatively slender, at most a little dilated in the middle); the pacuvius species group, containing C. pacuvius , C. americensis , C. antalyacus , C. hoddlei , C. lepidotus , C. loomansi and C. nigrifemora (forewing setose or at most with a narrow bare area along posterior margin behind base of marginal vein, demarcated anteriorly by a more or less straight line of setae; scape of male antenna usually, but not always, notably swollen); the russelli species group, containing C. russelli (clava of female antenna usually 3-segmented and midlobe of mesoscutum usually with 1 pair of setae); and the barsoomensis species group, comprised of the single species, C. barsoomensis sp. n. (a very long ovipositor, strongly exserted beyond apex of gaster; vertexal suture strongly angulate, broadly Y-shaped). C. femoratus (for which no male is known) and C. votetoda sp. n. remain unassigned to any of these groups as they have morphological features characteristic of both the pacuvius and the barsoomensis species groups.