1. Oxyrrhexis carbonator (Gravenhorst, 1807)

Cryptus carbonator Gravenhorst 1807: 264 [type:? Germany (destroyed)].

Synonyms:

Acrodactyla carbonatrix Schulz, 1906 (unjustified emendation).

Polysphincta carbonator morio Kiss, 1929 (Horstmann 2009: 679).

Polysphincta pussila Fonscolombe, 1854 (Seyrig 1932: 112).

Polysphincta velata Hartig, 1838 (Aubert 1967: 898).

References. Townes 1944: 50 [catalogue]. Townes & Townes 1960: 242 [description; key to 2 subspecies]. Fritzén & Fjellberg 2014: 136 [distribution in Europe; host]. Gadallah & El-Hennawy 2017 [Egypt; host].

Holarctic species, O. carbonator, comprises two subspecies, the nominotypical subspecies from the Palaearctic region and the other Nearctic. The Nearctic O. carbonator texana differs from the Palaearctic subspecies by the hind femur with a rather strong subapical infuscate band (Fig. 38), reddish orange and whitish coxae without fuscous marks, and sharper fuscous banding on hind tibia (Fig. 38) (Townes & Townes 1960).

This species has been reared from many hosts of the spider families Araneidae, Linyphiidae, Tetragnathidae, Theridiidae and Thomisidae, but all require verification (Gauld & Dubois 2006: 553). Fritzén & Fjellberg (2014) suggested that the only reliable host of European O. carbonator is Steatoda bipunctata (Linnaeus) ( Theridiidae) and considered all other host records in literature (listed by Yu et al. 2012) of non- Steatoda spiders, and also members of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, as misidentifications of either the parasitoid or host. Recently, O. carbonator was reared from the titanoecid spider Nurscia albomaculata (Lucas) ( Titanoecidae) in Egypt (Gadallah & El-Hennawy 2017).