A Taxonomic Study On Mesopolobus Westwood (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) From China

The present paper is a thesis for degree of MS, Which deals with thetaxonomy of the genus Mesopolobus Westwood from China.Mesopolobus is one of the largest genus of Pteramalidae, and it is poorlyknown in China. Many species of the genera are parasites of insect pests, andmay play an important role in biological control. Some Mesopolobus speciesare important in the control of pest species-biological control.The taxonomic state of Mesopolobus has been treated in Pteromalinaeunder Pteromalidae. In this study, the general morphological characters ofMesopolobus are given. The genus Halvka Bou?ek is close to Mesopolobus(Bou?ek, 1993), but Halvka can be briefly recognized with its clypeusproduced, propodeum without plica, antennal clava distinctly large and almostas long as 5 to 6 preceding segments combined.In the thesis, 25 species of Mesopolobus from China are described,including six new species: M. longissimus sp. nov.(det. Xiao,1998), M.mesolatus sp. nov., M. mesoeminulus sp. nov., M. scitulus sp. nov. (det.Xiao,1998), M. venequus sp. nov., M. ventumbrinus sp.nov.; and ten newlyrecorded species: M. aequus (Walker), M. albitarsus (Wlalker), M. minutusDzhanokmen, M. minutus Sureshan & Narendran, M. nobilis (Walker), M.rhabdophagae (Graham), M. semenis Askew, M. tibialis (Westwood), M.tortricidis Kamijo, M. typographi (Ruschka).The terminology generally follows that of Gibson (1997). Body length ismeasured in millimeters. Other measurements are relative. All the materialswere card-mounted specimens and deposited in Institute of Zoology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences (IZCAS). Materials were examined using LEICA M10.