A review of the Afrotropical Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with the descriptions of five new species Author Rousse, Pascal Author Noort, Simon Van 7CCD166F-F1FA-43DA-B582-4E84EAF59AD1 Natural History Department, Iziko South African Museum, PO Box 61, Cape Town 8000, South Africa & Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa & urn: lsid: zoobank. org: author: 7 CCD 166 F-F 1 FA- 43 DA-B 582 - 4 E 84 EAF 59 AD 1 text European Journal of Taxonomy 2014 2014-07-25 91 1 42 journal article 21980 10.5852/ejt.2014.91 a6c67e38-a7b7-4df5-839d-998299fd74b6 2118-9773 3836824 F6B6E184-448A-44EA-BF1B-D91122097847 Genus Epirhyssa Cresson, 1865 Hierax Tosquinet, 1903: 255 . Rhyssonota Kriechbaumer, 1890: 489 . Sychnostigma Baltazar, 1961: 75 . Diagnosis (updated from Townes 1969 and Gauld 1991 ) Small to large insects (fore wing length 6–25 mm ), usually orange or yellow interspersed with black maculae; clypeus very small, not subdivided, often with a subapical ridge bearing median and/or lateral weak to strong tubercles; ventral margin of clypeus thin, slightly concave, often with lateral corners produced; mandible not twisted, stout, strongly constricted basally, then weakly tapered, apically bidentate with lower tooth pointed (may appear chisel-like when worn) and upper tooth blunt or chisellike; occipital carina complete to nearly absent, when ventrally present joining hypostomal carina above mandibular base; hypostomal carina strongly raised above mandible base; subocular sulcus absent, but malar area granulate; pronotum long, mid-dorsally with a deep invagination and with thin margin projecting beyond invagination; antero-lateral margin of pronotum broadly rounded in front, its lower corner acute and slightly in-turned; epomia weak to moderately strong, contiguous with and diverging from anterior pronotal margin; mesoscutum with strong transverse rugosities; notauli anteriorly strong and meeting in centre of mesoscutum, defining an anteriorly abruptly rounded median lobe; mesopleuron moderately long, epicnemial carina most often present laterally and reaching to or above lower corner of pronotum, its dorsal end evanescent; mesopleural suture weakly angled centrally; submetapleural carina weak to strong, more or less complete; propodeum of moderate length, without carina dorsally but pleural carina distinct; tarsal claws simple, large; fore wing with areolet open, 2m–cu slightly basal to distinctly apical to rs–m; hind wing with distal abscissa of Cu present, joining Cu&cu–a near or at junction with M; mid trochantellus with a ventral longitudinal ridge; metasoma moderately slender, tergites smooth to finely sculptured; tergite 1 fused with its sternite and without glymma; apical margins of tergites 3–5 hardly to strongly concave; female with sternites 2–4 (but see E. brianfisheri sp. nov. ) with an anterior pair of tubercles, and with an apical truncate horn-like process on last tergite, ovipositor stout, laterally compressed, 4– 5x longer than hind tibia; male with metasoma slenderer and subgenital plate elongate, posteriorly rather concave. Species richness and distribution ( Yu et al . 2012 ) Epirhyssa is mostly circumtropical with some Far-Eastern species occurring up to Northern Japan ; it includes 113 valid species with only six reported from the Afrotropical Region, to which we add here five new species.