Global phylogeny of the inquilinous gall wasp tribe Synergini (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Cynipidae): first insights and establishment of a new cynipid tribe Author Lobato-Vila, Irene Author Bae, Jongmin Author Roca-Cusachs, Marcos Author Kang, Minjoon Author Jung, Sunghoon Author Melika, George Author Pénzes, Zsolt Author Pujade-Villar, Juli text Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 2022 2022-02-06 195 1338 1354 journal article 121555 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab085 78048bf6-e413-494f-b579-0bc7e59ac73b 0024-4082 6992959 A4CC7782-97F4-4246-B070-1C4FF62B1950 POSITION OF LITHOSAPHONECRUS Lithosaphonecrus was described as a Saphonecrus - like genus exclusively associated with galls on Lithocarpus Blume. In accordance with Bozsó et al . (2013) , our results support the monophyly of Lithosaphonecrus , which is clearly separated from other inquiline genera by morphological, molecular and biological peculiarities. In the trees provided by Bozsó et al . (2013) , Lithosaphonecrus is recovered as the sister-taxon to the Saphonecrus + Ufo clade with low support. However, our results resolve this genus as a sister-taxon to the Palaearctic clade of Synergus , also with a low support. Hence, the position of this genus within Synergini needs to be assessed in more detail. DOES RHOOPHILUS BELONG TO A NEW CYNIPID INQUILINE TRIBE? Rhoophilus , which is endemic to South Africa (AT), is the sole genus within Synergini known exclusively from the Southern Hemisphere and the only one not associated with Cynipini galls on Fagaceae , but with Lepidoptera galls on Searsia (Anacardiaceae) ( Van Noort et al. , 2007 ). Furthermore, it shows significant morphological differences with respect to the rest of Synergini genera. Two of the most relevant differences are: (1) the first metasomal tergite is reduced to a smooth dorsal crescent-shaped scale like in Ceroptres (Ceroptresini) , Synophromorpha and Periclistus (Diastrophini) , instead of ring-shaped and longitudinally sulcate as in the rest of Synergini ( Ronquist et al. , 2015 ) ; (2) in both sexes the second metasomal tergite (T2) is fused with the third (T3) as in the rest of Synergini , but in this case the resulting sclerite does not cover the subsequent metasomal tergites, which are visible and of similar length ( Van Noort et al. , 2007 ). In both analyses, Rhoophilus is recovered as the sister-taxon to the rest of Synergini with a moderate to strong support (BS = 72, PP = 1.00) (see Fig. 2 ). This topology is consistent with the latest phylogeny of Cynipoidea obtained by Blaimer et al. (2020) , in which the position of Rhoophilus at the base of the tribe as a sister-taxon to the rest of Synergini is well supported (BS = 100). Therefore, and on the basis of molecular, morphological and biological data, we are confident to raise Rhoophilus to a new, separate tribe, Rhoophilini Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar, trib. nov., which is characterized both morphologically and biologically at the end of this paper based on the re-description and pictures of R. loewi given by Van Noort et al. (2007) .