Gonatocerus Nees 1834

Subgenus Gonatocerus (Gonatocerus Nees ab Esenbeck, 1834)

Gonatocerus Nees ab Esenbeck 1834: 192 –193. Type species: Gonatocerus longicornis Nees ab Esenbeck, by monotypy.

Lymaenon Walker (sulphuripes species group): Debauche 1948: 80, 82; Debauche 1949: 27. Gonatocerus (Gonatocerus Nees): De Santis 1967: 103–105 (in part); De Santis 1979: 364 –367 (in part). Gonatocerus Nees (sulphuripes species group): Matthews 1986: 216 –218; Huber 1988: 30, 33–35; Yoshimoto 1990: 39;

Zeya & Hayat 1995: 75–76.

Diagnosis. Face with subantennal sulci widely separated at junction with clypeus; back of head without sutures; pronotum divided mediolongitudinally, the two lobes almost always abutting except in G. perforator (Ogloblin) where the two lobes are widely separate from each other; dorsellum triangular to rhomboidal; propodeum usually smooth medially or, occasionally, either with 1 usually faint median carina or 2 incomplete submedian carinae hardly visible as very fine lines; female funicle 8-segmented; forewing relatively narrow, with discal setae extending to base of marginal vein; ovipositor often slightly to distinctly exserted beyond apex of gaster.

TABLE 1. Species groups within Gonatocerus as proposed by various authors and their current subgeneric placement. Although G. (Gonatocerus) is fairly distinct from G. (Cosmocomoidea) there are a few species that morphologically appear to fall between the two subgenera. Furthermore, the species of G. (Gonatocerus) are not particularly easy to identify and in many their limits are uncertain. Much more work needs to be done on this subgenus to sort out the species properly for any biogeographical region.

Distribution. Cosmopolitan.

Hosts. In the New World, reliable host records of G. (Gonatocerus) are from eggs of Cicadellidae.