Ascogaster Wesmael 1835
Creators: name: Kittel, Rebecca N.
name: Austin, Andrew D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Ascogaster

description: Genus Ascogaster Wesmael, 1835
(Figures 2, 4 – 7, 15)
http://species-id.net/wiki/ Ascogaster
Type. Ascogaster instabilis Wesmael, 1835: 227 (by subsequent designation: Förster, 1862: 244), IRSN (examined).
Ascogaster: Shenefelt 1973: 814, Shaw 1983: 7, Huddleston 1984: 348, Tang and Marsh 1994: 281.
For diagnosis of Australian taxa, see Kittel and Austin (2014).
Comments
Leptodrepana, described by Shaw (1983) from the New World, is accepted as a valid genus by some authors (e.g. Shaw 1997; Brajkovic et al. 2010), while others have treated it as a junior synonym of Ascogaster (van Achterberg 1990; Yu et al. 2005). Tang and Marsh (1994) followed van Achterberg ’ s synonymy and treated the new species from China as Ascogaster, but also suggested that a comprehensive revision of the group was needed as some species showed characters intermediate between Ascogaster and Leptodrepana. Shaw (1997) discussed the difficult status of Leptodrepana, arguing for a separate genus since Ascogaster would otherwise be paraphyletic. However, no comprehensive analysis has yet been undertaken using a combined morphological and multigene approach to resolve this question. Here we treat all relevant species as Ascogaster, but point out that A. brevivena sp. nov. exhibits characters intermediate between these two genera, such as having equilateral ocelli as in Leptodrepana.
Key to Ascogaster from the Australian arid zone
1. SR-1 not completely sclerotised, not extending to the margin of fore wing (Figure 4e); female with 22 antennomeres; ocelli equilateral (Figure 4c)................. ................................................................................................. Ascogaster brevivena sp. nov.
- SR-1 completely sclerotised, extending to the margin of fore wing (Figure 5e); female with 19 antennomeres; ocelli isosceles (Figure 5c) ......................................... 2
2. Carapace elongate with extended tip, teeth on posterior end present (Figure 6c, arrowed)................................... ................................... Ascogaster prolixogaster sp. nov.
- Carapace oval, but not elongated, posterior end rounded without teeth (Figure 4a)......................................................................................................................................... 3
3. Carapace and legs orange (Figure 5a); notauli absent...................................................... ..................................................................................... Ascogaster ferruginegaster sp. nov.
- Carapace black (Figure 7a), legs brown with black coxa (Figure 7a); notauli present................................................................................ Ascogaster rubriscapa sp. nov.
description: Published as part of Kittel, Rebecca N. & Austin, Andrew D., 2015, New species of Australian arid zone chelonine wasps from the genera Phanerotoma and Ascogaster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) informed by the ' Bush Blitz' surveys of national reserves, pp. 211-262 in Journal of Natural History 50 on pages 221-224, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1074747, http://zenodo.org/record/3983279