Cratocentrus Cameron, 1907

Abul-Sood, Medhat I., Gadallah, Neveen S., Hossni, Mohammed T. & Delvare, Gérard, 2018, The subfamily Cratocentrinae (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae): reappraisal of their morphological characters and review of the West Palaearctic species, with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 4377 (4), pp. 490-516 : 497-498

Cratocentrus Cameron

Cratocentrus Cameron, 1907: 213 . Original description. Type species C. ruficornis Cameron, 1907 , subsequent designation by Gahan and Fagan (1923).

= Cerachalcis Masi, 1944 : Steffan, 1957: 239.

= Lepidochalcis Nikol'skaya, 1952: Steffan, 1957: 239.

Diagnosis and recognition. The main characters for the diagnosis of the genus are stated in the key. The areolation of the metatibia along the tarsal groove apparently is an autapomorphy of the genus, as is the absence of a mesal stripe of setation dorsally on the bottom of the antennal depression (only one exception found). The well expanded basal stripe of the syntergum separates the genus from Spatocentrus , Acrocentrus and Philocentrus , all genera described by Steffan (1959). The well expanded fasciae on GT5 and GT6 distinguishes Cratocentrus from Marres Walker and Acanthochalcis Cameron. The presence of teeth on the vertex on the inner edge of the lateral ocelli, although often observed in Cratocentrus , is nevertheless not found in all species and hence cannot be used for diagnosing the genus. Finally, in most Afrotropical species the pronotal carina is visible dorsally, progressively fading from the sides but separating the collum from the collar on most of the pronotal width. According to these characters Cerachalcis birmana Masi does not belong to Cratocentrus as already quoted by Steffan (1959).

Distribution. The genus is now represented in the West Palaearctic region by 4 species, one of the relevant species, C. tomentosus , having also been collected once in India. Cratocentrus is most diverse in the Afrotropics with at least 14 existing species.

Hosts. The genus was repeatedly reared from branches and twigs infested with xylophagous beetles which are supposed to be its hosts, as for the other Cratocentrinae. The biological data are nevertheless known only for C. fastuosus ( Masi) (Masi 1944) , C. pruinosus Steffan (Steffan 1959) and C. inermus Delvare sp. nov. (present paper).