Leptofoeninae Handlirsch, 1924

Engel, Michael, 2009, The first fossil leptofoenine wasp (Hymenoptera, Pteromalidae): A new species of Leptofoenus in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic, ZooKeys 13 (13), pp. 57-66 : 60

Subfamily Leptofoeninae Handlirsch, 1924

Pelecinellinae Ashmead, 1895: 231 . Type genus: Pelecinella Westwood, 1868 . Not to be given precedence over Leptofoenidae Handlirsch, 1924 in accordance with ICZN (1999, Art. 40.2).

Leptofoenidae Handlirsch, 1924: 744. Type genus: Leptofoenus Smith, 1862 .

Diagnosis. Large, elongate species (5-27 mm in length); head subcubic, with parascrobal crests; inner orbits of compound eyes parallel or slightly divergent toward lower tangents; antenna 13-segmented (except see below), without true anellus, toruli situated above lower tangent of compound eyes; malar space short; mandible blunt, with large truncate apex, sometimes with a small ventral truncation or tooth; mesosoma elongate, with pronotum dorsally twice as long as wide; legs slender and elongate; petiole elongate; ovipositor elongate.

Comments. The family-group name based on Pelecinella predates that based on Leptofoenus and accordingly holds priority for usage. Although Pelecinella is a subjective junior synonym of Leptofoenus ( Brues, 1924; LaSalle and Stage, 1985), this does not affect the availability of the family-group name based upon it (ICZN, 1999: Art. 40.1). However, reverting to Pelecinellinae for the subfamily is not in the general interest of nomenclatural stability given that a family-group name based on Leptofoenus has been in universal usage since at least 1958 (e.g., Bouček 1958). Accordingly, the name Leptofoeninae is retained as the name for this subfamily in accordance with the spirit, if not the precise letter, of Art. 40.2 (ICZN, 1999).

LaSalle and Stage (1985) provided a revision of the species of Leptofoenus [including at that time Doddifoenus australiensis (Dodd) ], while Bouček (1988) characterized the two species of Doddifoenus .