Pediobius pyrgo species group

Diagnosis. Female antenna stout, with three funicular segments freely separated by narrow petioles. Collar of pronotum with lateral corners prominent, obtuse-angular. Scutellum at least with some longitudinal striation, and meshes often weak or evanescent and almost smooth along median line. Propodeum very short, with submedian carinae diverging posteriorly. Gt1 large and at least reaching mid-length of gaster. Metatibial spur curved and strikingly prolonged, at least reaching the apex of the basal tarsomere.

Species included. Kerrich (1973) proposed a species group that is closely allied to P. imbreus, including P. erionotae, P. bruchicida, P. imbreus Walker and P. parvulus (Ferrière), which P. pyrgo was not involved in that study. We take the pyrgo -group proposed by Bouček (1965a) and the imbreus -group proposed by Kerrich (1973) as the same species group. We follow Bouček (1965a) to use the " pyrgo -group" to name this species group. Five species, P. bruchicida, P. erionotae, P. phragmitis, P. pyrgo and P. susinellae, are involved in this study. Besides, based on some determined specimens and references, several other species of Pediobius are probably closely allied to P. pyrgo, such as P. amaurocoelus (Waterson), P. cajanus Taveras & Hansson, P. furvus (Gahan) and P. vigintiquinque Kerrich, which possibly could be also included in the pyrgo -group.