Accepted by I. Miko: 20 Nov. 2012; published: 8 Jan. 2013 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2013 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 3599 (4): 325–342 www.mapress.com/ zootaxa/ Article 325 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3599.4.2 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EC10501F-A56E-4B1E-A1CB-0F509CBB1050 A review of Western Palaearctic Amblyscelio and Baryconus (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea, Platygastridae) OVIDIU ALIN POPOVICI 1* , LUBOMIR MASNER 2 , DAVID G. NOTTON 3 & MARIANA POPOVICI 1 1 University ‘Al. I. Cuza’ Iasi, Faculty of Biology, B-dul Carol I, no. 11, RO-700506; Romania. e-mail: popovici_alin_ovidiu@yahoo.com 2 Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6, Canada. e-mail: lmasner@gmail.com 3 Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom. e-mail: d.notton@nhm.ac.uk *corresponding author Abstract The European species of the genera Amblyscelio and Baryconus are reviewed and revised based on morphological data. Females of Amblyscelio striaticeps Kieffer, 1913 and Baryconus graeffei (Kieffer, 1908) are described and the ovipositor of Amblyscelio is illustrated for the first time. The monotypic genus Amblyscelio was previously known only from a single male specimen. Baryconus graeffei is confirmed as a distinct species, while B. orbus Kononova, 2008 is recognized as a junior subjective synonym of B. europaeus (Kieffer, 1908) syn. nov . These findings are supported by a principal component analysis (PCA) of ratios of various distance measurements. Amblyscelio striaticeps is newly recorded from Greece and Slovenia, Baryconus graeffei from France, Greece, Montenegro and Turkey and B. europaeus (Kieffer, 1908) from Croatia, France, Morocco, Portugal, Sicily, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. Key words: microhymenoptera, egg parasitoids, ovipositor, morphometrics, intraspecific variability, multivariate statistical methods, identification key Introduction The Platygastroidea is the third largest of the parasitic superfamilies after the Ichneumonoidea and Chalcidoidea (Huber 2009). Despite their abundance in nature and importance in biological control, most scelionid species concepts are poorly understood. Numerous European species were described from single specimens and thus descriptions do not represent the range of intraspecific variability. Recent studies such as Vecher (1980), Johnson et al. (1987) and Popovici et al. (2011) have revealed significant intraspecific variability in some platygastroid species, which show that it is necessary to reassess the species concepts of early authors, using extensive newly collected material verified against type specimens. Amblyscelio was erected by Kieffer (1913) for a single species, A. striaticeps, described from one male. Later mentions of Amblyscelio appear to repeat Kieffer’s description (Kieffer, 1926; Kozlov, 1971 & 1978; Kononova & Kozlov, 2008) until Masner (1976) provided a more detailed description of the male of A. striaticeps and noted the existence of another, as yet undescribed, African species. Amblyscelio is a monotypic genus with an uncertain position in Platygastroidea. Kozlov (1970) placed this genus in Scelionini close to Scelio Latreille, Sparasion Latreille, Sceliomorpha Ashmead, Lepidoscelio Kieffer, Acanthoscelio Ashmead, Heptascelio Kieffer, Oreiscelio Kieffer and Nixonia Masner. Masner (1976) considered that Amblyscelio did “…not possess a single character typical for Scelionini…” and classified it in Calliscelionini, near Dichoteleas Kieffer. In the present study we provide a detailed description of the female of Amblyscelio striaticeps, including the ovipositor assembly that reveals some important information on the phylogenetic position of the genus. Baryconus has been considered to belong to the Baryconini, together with Apegus Förster, Bracalba Dodd, Oxyscelio Kieffer and Chromoteleia Ashmead (Kozlov 1970, Masner 1976). The monophyly of the tribe was