Synopeas Foerster

MacGown, M. W. & Evans, G. A., 2003, A new platygastrid wasp from Florida (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae)., Zootaxa 320, pp. 1-7 : 1

The genus Synopeas Foerster 1856 [ Platygastridae : Platygastrinae : Synopeadini ] consists of 123 species worldwide; of these, 28 species are known from the Nearctic, and 9 species from Florida (Vlug 1995; Johnson 2003). Very little taxonomic research has been published on the New World fauna of the subfamily Platygastrinae since Ashmead (1893) and Fouts (1924). Species of Synopeas are only known to parasitize gall midges [ Cecidomyidae : Diptera] and can be distinguished from other platygastrid genera by the following combination of characters: no wing veins present; metasomal tergites I and II fused in both sexes, thus appearing as one very long segment; the scutellum usually terminating in a short to long spine; and the pronotal collar with a ventral pit or depression. The genus is divided into three subgenera based on the shape and length of the metasoma. In the subgenus Dolichotrypes , the metasoma is long, narrow and greatly extended; in Sactogaster , it is pendulous, or "comma-shaped" ith tergite II swollen and tergites III-VI tapering; and in the subgenus Synopeas , to which the new species is assigned, the metasoma is normal shaped, neither greatly extended nor pendulous, but gradually tapering to a point as shown in figure 5. Morphological terminology follows that used by Masner and Huggert 1989.