Megachalcis Cameron, 1903

Binoy, C., Nasser, M. & Santhosh, S., 2022, The Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot: the example of Chalcididae (Hymenoptera) with the description of a new species of Phasgonophora Westwood and a review of the regional species, Journal of Natural History 56 (41 - 44), pp. 1627-1655 : 1639

Genus Megachalcis Cameron, 1903

Megachalcis Cameron 1903: 96 .

Type species Megachalcis fumipennis Cameron , by monotypy.

Allocentrus Cameron 1911: 12 .

Type species Allocentrus hirticeps Cameron , by monotypy.

Macrochalcis Masi 1944: 136 .

Type species Macrochalcis bischoffi Masi , by original designation.

Recognition

Metasoma in female pronounced, produced into long tail-like syntergum, Gt2–Gt4 strongly reduced and for the most part hidden under the large first tergite; PMV much longer than MV; mesosoma often with rasp-like sculpture and body with patches of silvery setae.

Note

Members of the Oriental genus Megachalcis Cameron are very rarely encountered in collections and are probably parasitoids of wood-boring beetles, occurring in naturally rich rainforest habitats, although no actual host records are available to date ( Bouček 1988). Two specimens (one male and one female) were collected during the present survey from forests of southern Western Ghats. The female specimen runs to M. kannapuramensis Sureshan and Girish Kumar, 2018 in the key to species ( Sureshan et al. 2018) with slight differences in the colour. The species is here redescribed with illustrations of both the holotype and the freshly collected specimen. The male specimen collected is strikingly different from all the females and is here described without formally naming it.