Review of Afrotropical sceliotracheline parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae) Author van Noort, Simon https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6930-9741 Research and Exhibitions Department, South African Museum, Iziko Museums of South Africa, PO Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa & Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag Rondebosch, 7701, Cape Town, South Africa svannoort@iziko.org.za Author Lahey, Zachary https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9402-9570 Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 1315 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio 43212, USA Author Talamas, Elijah J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1048-6345 Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville, FL, USA Author Austin, Andrew D. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia Author Masner, Lubomir Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, K. W. Neatby Building, Ottawa, Ontario K 1 A 0 C 6, Canada Author Polaszek, Andrew https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7171-3353 Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW 7 5 BD, UK Author Johnson, Norman F. Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 1315 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio 43212, USA text Journal of Hymenoptera Research 2021 2021-12-23 87 115 222 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.87.73770 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.87.73770 1314-2607-87-115 7137A82A62E34958A48CB05BEA80FE60 DF6504D9294F5C7F8148AAA6C0D3E01B 5811667 Sceliotrachelinae Brues Sceliotrachelinae Brues, 1908: 3, 12 (original description, keyed); Kozlov 1970 : 222 (description); Fabritius 1974 : 293 (description); Muesebeck 1979 : 1174 (catalogue of species of U.S. and Canada); Sarazin 1986 : 967 (primary type material in Canadian National Collection of Insects); Masner and Huggert 1989 : 11 (ground plan characters); Buhl 1999 : 10 (checklist of species of Denmark); Loiacono and Margaria 2002 : 555 (catalogue of Brazilian species); Rajmohana 2006 : 133 (description, keyed); Ghahari and Buhl 2011 : 331 (species of Iran); Rajmohana 2014 : 6 (keyed); Asadi-Farfar et al. 2020 : 125 (new species records of Iran). Amitini Szabo , 1959: 390 (original description. Synonymized by Masner 1964 ). Sceliotrachelini Brues, 1908: Masner 1964 : 9 (change to tribal status, systematic position, diagnosis). Diagnosis. The subfamily is poorly defined with no confirmed synapomorphic characters uniting the currently included taxa. Many, but not all, sceliotracheline genera possess foamy structures, which, among platygastroids, are limited to Platygastridae ( Lahey et al. 2019b ; Chen et al. 2021 ). The following characters can be loosely used for a broad definition: the form of the female antennal clava, which is often abrupt, massive and usually obviously 3- or 4-merous; a very stout habitus, similar to the form present in the subfamily Telenominae , with the metasoma not laterally carinated (there is no impressed submarginal ridge as found in Scelioninae and Teleasinae ), at most a sharp lateral edge. There is a very short (sometimes almost absent) to a long, well developed (especially in species with 10 antennomeres) apically knobbed submarginal vein in Fidiobia (Ovidiu Popovici pers. comm.), except in the brachypterous F. pronotata Szabo , and a longer submarginal vein in Allotropa that has a spectral knob. In Platygastoides Dodd, at least in the type of the genus, P. mirabilis , the submarginal vein is knobbed apically, but far more spectral. Sometimes there is a spectral submarginal vein present in Amitus , but this is never knobbed apically. Fore wing venation is absent in Isolia and Sceliotrachelus , except for S. karooensis sp. nov., which has a spectral submarginal vein. The Australian Platygastoides combines some characters of Fidiobia , Plutomerus and Isolia .