Taxonomy of Microgastrinae (e.g., Mason 1981, and many subsequent papers), usually under the name of “lateral face of scutellum”. Karlsson and Ronquist (2012) did not provide much detail for those areas because the two species of Opiinae they studied are relatively simple and non-differentiated in that body region. We also calculated and compared many ratios between linear dimensions of structures (morphometric taxonomy), a common practice in the taxonomy of many groups of parasitoid wasps (Baur and Leuenberger 2011, and references cited there). However, most of the ratios presented here have not been used previously in Microgastrinae taxonomy. To facilitate understanding of the traits and ratios, a detailed account of every morphological structure and measurement used in this study is provided in Appendix 1, including links to the HAO website and references to terms that have been commonly used previously in Microgastrinae taxonomy. The most important morphological characters used in this study are illustrated in Figs 206?09. Throughout the text, especially in the keys, “body length” refers to the length of the anatomical line that is median and extends between the anteriormost point of the head and the posteriormost point of the metasoma (excluding ovipositor and ovipositor sheaths). “Fore wing length” refers to the length of the anatomical line that extends between the median margin of the first axillary Ciclosporin web sclerite and the distalmost point of the wing blade (Appendix 1). The measurement of variables must be done as uniformly as possible, and special care must be taken when choosing the end points of any structure. It is also advisable to measure at the highest possible magnification to minimize errors. Some measurements that are particularly error-prone are discussed further in Appendix 1. Throughout the keys the following acronyms are used for morphological terms: T1, T2, T3 (mediotergite 1, 2, 3). Whenever there is a “(N = a number)”, e.g., “(N=4)” after a species name, it refers to the PP58MedChemExpress PP58 number of specimens studied morphologically for that species. It is only provided when the available number of specimens was less than 5. Molecular analysis has revealed a large number of morphologically cryptic species, often possessing very subtle morphological differences that we found to correlate with ecological and host data. Certain features differ just slightly between species, and thereJose L. Fernandez-Triana et al. / ZooKeys 383: 1?65 (2014)may be overlap of values between individual specimens of different but very similar species. We studied as many specimens as were available. Our definition of a “species” is a postulated biological unit that differs from other species in its morphology (however subtle), COI barcode, and host use, and presumably represents a distinct breeding population. In the few cases where what we consider to be a species differs only in barcode and/or host, we indicate this. All the species in ACG are essentially fully sympatric to parapatric (the case when two ecosystems intergrade). The dichotomous keys were built to accommodate, as much as possible, what appear to be potential natural groups, based on morphology, biology (host data), and DNA barcoding. However, in such a large assemblage of species there is likely to be considerable homoplasy and thus in some couplets we had to use logical characters (e.g., “if”, “then”, “and”, “or”, “and/or”). Those words are shown in bold and italic throughout the keys, to be e.Taxonomy of Microgastrinae (e.g., Mason 1981, and many subsequent papers), usually under the name of “lateral face of scutellum”. Karlsson and Ronquist (2012) did not provide much detail for those areas because the two species of Opiinae they studied are relatively simple and non-differentiated in that body region. We also calculated and compared many ratios between linear dimensions of structures (morphometric taxonomy), a common practice in the taxonomy of many groups of parasitoid wasps (Baur and Leuenberger 2011, and references cited there). However, most of the ratios presented here have not been used previously in Microgastrinae taxonomy. To facilitate understanding of the traits and ratios, a detailed account of every morphological structure and measurement used in this study is provided in Appendix 1, including links to the HAO website and references to terms that have been commonly used previously in Microgastrinae taxonomy. The most important morphological characters used in this study are illustrated in Figs 206?09. Throughout the text, especially in the keys, “body length” refers to the length of the anatomical line that is median and extends between the anteriormost point of the head and the posteriormost point of the metasoma (excluding ovipositor and ovipositor sheaths). “Fore wing length” refers to the length of the anatomical line that extends between the median margin of the first axillary sclerite and the distalmost point of the wing blade (Appendix 1). The measurement of variables must be done as uniformly as possible, and special care must be taken when choosing the end points of any structure. It is also advisable to measure at the highest possible magnification to minimize errors. Some measurements that are particularly error-prone are discussed further in Appendix 1. Throughout the keys the following acronyms are used for morphological terms: T1, T2, T3 (mediotergite 1, 2, 3). Whenever there is a “(N = a number)”, e.g., “(N=4)” after a species name, it refers to the number of specimens studied morphologically for that species. It is only provided when the available number of specimens was less than 5. Molecular analysis has revealed a large number of morphologically cryptic species, often possessing very subtle morphological differences that we found to correlate with ecological and host data. Certain features differ just slightly between species, and thereJose L. Fernandez-Triana et al. / ZooKeys 383: 1?65 (2014)may be overlap of values between individual specimens of different but very similar species. We studied as many specimens as were available. Our definition of a “species” is a postulated biological unit that differs from other species in its morphology (however subtle), COI barcode, and host use, and presumably represents a distinct breeding population. In the few cases where what we consider to be a species differs only in barcode and/or host, we indicate this. All the species in ACG are essentially fully sympatric to parapatric (the case when two ecosystems intergrade). The dichotomous keys were built to accommodate, as much as possible, what appear to be potential natural groups, based on morphology, biology (host data), and DNA barcoding. However, in such a large assemblage of species there is likely to be considerable homoplasy and thus in some couplets we had to use logical characters (e.g., “if”, “then”, “and”, “or”, “and/or”). Those words are shown in bold and italic throughout the keys, to be e.
