Pristepyris Kieffer, 1905

Fadeev, Kirill I., 2021, Review of the genera Pristocera Klug and Pristepyris Kieffer (Hymenoptera Bethylidae, Pristocerinae) of Russia and adjacent territories, Zootaxa 4965 (3), pp. 461-482 : 475

Genus Pristepyris Kieffer, 1905

Synonyms. Acrepyris Kieffer, 1905 (in Kieffer & Marshall 1904 –1906); Neopristocera Yasumatsu ( Azevedo et al. 2018a, 2018b).

Type-species. Pristepyris rugicollis Kieffer, 1905

The genus Pristepyris consists of 38 species ( Alencar et al. 2016, Azevedo et al. 2018b), of which 23 species known from the Nearctic and Neotropical regions and six species from the Oriental region; eight species of this genus were described from the border of the Oriental and Eastern Palaearctic regions ( China and Japan), and only one species, Pristepyris masii ( Giordani Soika, 1933) , inhabits the Western Palaearctic. Most species are known only from males till now. The genus unknown yet in the Afrotropical region, where previously was erroneously recorded by Azevedo et al. (2018b).

The single European species Pristepyris masii ( Giordani Soika, 1933) was described from Italy in the genus Pristocera Klug , and known only from the male. Alencar et al. (2016) examined its holotype and transferred this species to the genus Acrepyris . Finally, this species was transferred to the genus Pristepyris Kieffer by Azevedo et al. (2018b) Pristepyris masii was recently recorded in the Russian fauna ( Fadeev 2017, Lelej & Fadeev 2017) from southwest of their European part.

Members of this genus are known as ectoparasites of the beetle larvae from the family Elateridae (Coleoptera) .

For the diagnosis of the genus, see Alencar et al. (2016) and Azevedo et al. (2018b).