1197 Accepted by M. Buffington: 10 Feb. 2006; published: 8 May 2006 55 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2006 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 1197: 55–63 (2006) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ The species of Chalcididae (Hymenoptera) parasitoids of Parides ascanius (Cramer), an endangered Papilionidae (Lepidoptera) from restingas of Southeastern Brazil MARCELO TEIXEIRA TAVARES 1 *, ANDREA BARBIERI NAVARRO-TAVARES 2 & GILBERTO DE SOUZA SOARES DE ALMEIDA 3 1 Universidade Federal do Esp rito Santo, Departamento de Ci ncias Biol gicas, Av. Marechal Campos 1468, 29.042-090, Vit ria, ES, Brazil. E-mail: mtavares@ndp.ufes.br 2 Universidade Federal do Esp rito Santo, Centro de Ci ncias Humanas e Naturais, Programa de P s-gradu- a o em Ci ncias Biol gicas (Zoologia), Av. Marechal Campos 1468, 29.042-090, Vit ria, ES, Brazil. E-mail: abnavarro@click21.com.br 3 Universidade Federal Fluminense, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Caixa Postal 100.436, 24001-970, Niter i, RJ, Brazil. E-mail: gbggssa@vm.uff.br *Corresponding author. Abstract Four species of Chalcididae (Hymenoptera) associated with Parides ascanius (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) are presented. Brachymeria koehleri Blanchard and B. nigritibialis, sp. n., are recorded as hyperparasitoids through Lespesia sp. (Diptera: Tachinidae). Brachymeria mnestor (Walker) and Conura parides, sp. n., are recorded as primary parasitoids. These are the first records of parasitoid species associated with P. ascanius. Key words: species description, host relationship, parasitoid guild Introduction Parides ascanius (Cramer) (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae), the fluminense swallowtail, is a threatened species listed by the IUCN Red Data Book since 1983 (Wells et al. 1983; IUCN 2004) and by the Brazilian government since 1973 (IBDF 1973; Brasil 2003). Its larvae feed on Aristolochia trilobata L. (= A. macroura Gómez) [Aristolochiaceae] and it lives on restinga plains, on sandy and brushed areas of subcoastal swamp habitat, from Itaguaí to São João da Barra, Rio de Janeiro State (Otero & Brown Jr. 1986; Tyler et al. 1994). Aspects of the biology and ecology of P. ascanius were published by Otero (1984),