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The egg parasitoid Telenomus remus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) has been investigated for classical and applied biological control of noctuid pests, especially Spodoptera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) species. Although T. remus was introduced into Brazil over three decades ago for classical biological control of S. frugiperda , this wasp has not been recorded as established in corn or soybean crops. We used an integrative approach to identify T. remus , combining a taxonomic key based on the male genitalia with DNA barcoding, using a cytochrome c oxidase subunit I mitochondrial gene fragment. This is the first report of natural parasitism of T. remus on S. frugiperda and S. cosmioides eggs at two locations in Brazil. We also confirmed that the T. remus lineage in Brazil derives from a strain in Venezuela (originally from Papua New Guinea and introduced into the Americas, Africa, and Asia). The occurrence of T. remus parasitizing S. frugiperda and S. cosmioides eggs in field conditions, not associated with inundative releases, suggests that the species has managed to establish itself in the field in Brazil. This opens possibilities for future biological control programs, since T. remus shows good potential for mass rearing and egg parasitism of important agricultural pests such as Spodoptera species.

Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) and Trissolcus cultratus (Mayr), comb. rev. are under study as classical biological agents to control the brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys (Stål) in North America. Here we present diagnoses for all Nearctic species of Trissolcus , including Trissolcus japonicus and Trissolcus cultratus comb. rev., and identification keys to enable separation of these species from the existing fauna. Trissolcus cultratus comb. rev. is removed from synonymy with Trissolcus flavipes . Two new species are described, Trissolcus valkyria sp. n. and Trissolcus zakotos sp. n. A neotype is designated for Trissolcus brochymenae and a lectotype is designated for Trissolcus basalis .

The genus Dichoteleas Kieffer (Scelionidae: Scelioninae) is known only from the Old World: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Madagascar, southern India, the island of New Guinea, and eastern Australia. After revision, 10 species are recognized. Four species were previously recognized and are redescribed: D. ambositrae Risbec (Madagascar), D. indicus Saraswat (India: Kerala), D. rugosus Kieffer (Australia: Queensland), and D. subcoeruleus Dodd (Australia: Queensland). Six species are described as new: D. fulgidus sp. nov. (Indonesia: Papua Barat), D. fuscus sp. nov. (Papua New Guinea, Australia: Queensland), D. hamatus sp. nov. (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa)., D. rubyae sp. nov. (Madagascar), D. striatus sp. nov. (Madagascar), and D. umbra sp. nov. (Tanzania). Dichoteleas pappi Szabó is treated as a junior synonym of D. rugosus. An identification key to species of the genus is provided.

Four new species of the genus Idris Förster (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea), reared from the eggs of pholcid spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae) in southeast Asia are described on the basis of external morphology and the barcode region of the mitochondrial COI gene. The new species and their hosts are: I.badius Johnson & Chen, sp. n. (ex Nipisaphyllicola (Deeleman-Reinhold), Panjangehamiguitan Huber), I.balteus Johnson & Chen, sp. n. (ex Panjangecamiguin Huber), I.curtus Johnson & Chen, sp. n. (ex Calapnitanunezae Huber, Panjangecamiguin Huber, Tissahamiabukittimah (Huber), Uthinaluzonica Simon), and I.fusciceps (ex Belisanakhaosok Huber).

The pine moth, Dendrolimus houi (Lajonquiere), is a notorious insect pest of coniferous trees in South China. A gregarious egg parasitoid in the family Scelionidae shows great potential to be mass-reared for the biological control of D. houi . This parasitoid is identified as Telenomus dendrolimi (Matsumura) based on comparison to paratype specimens of Telenomus dendrolimusi Chu, a junior synonym of T. dendrolimi . Telenomus dendrolimi is redescribed and included in a molecular analysis. In addition to parasitizing D. houi , T. dendrolimi was found to successfully parasitize six other species under laboratory conditions, with Antheraea pernyi (Guérin-Méneville) the most suitable host for mass-rearing.

Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae) is an egg-parasitoid of the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (Linneaus) (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae). Many behaviors associated with female T. basalis host-finding and acceptance are mediated by chemosensory pathways, for which olfactory, gustatory and ionotropic receptors have been previously identified. Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) are small, globular proteins, one of the functions of which is the transport of odorant ligands through the aqueous lymph of chemosensory sensilla to these receptors. We identified 18 classical OBP sequences in the T. basalis genome and transcriptomes sharing an average 26.8% pairwise identity. Gene tree analyses suggest very limited lineage-specific expansion and identify potential orthologs among other scelionids and Hymenoptera. Transcriptome mapping and qPCR comparison of expression levels in antennae and bodies of both sexes determine that at least five TbOBPs are preferentially expressed in the female antennae. These are, therefore, prime candidates for further study to determine their role in detecting host-produced semiochemicals.

The genus Phoenoteleia Kieffer is revised. Phoenoteleia canalis Dodd, P. rufa Kieffer, and P. rufescens (Kieffer) are redescribed, P. fusca (Kieffer) is transferred to Dicroscelio Kieffer as Dicroscelio fuscus (Kieffer), comb. nov. , and six species are described as new: P. buka Lahey, sp. nov. (Fiji), P. gunnelsi Lahey, sp. nov. (Indonesia), P. halua Lahey, sp. nov. (Indonesia), P. kaca Lahey, sp. nov. (Indonesia), P. kuboa Lahey, sp. nov. (Fiji), and P. sanma Lahey, sp. nov. (Vanuatu). The difficulty in associating male and female specimens is discussed. A key is provided to differentiate between the species of Phoenoteleia and the putative closely related genera Mallateleia Dodd and Oxyteleia Kieffer.

Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) is a minute parasitic wasp that develops in the eggs of stink bugs. Over the past 30 years, Tr. basalis has become a model organism for studying host finding, patch defense behavior, and chemical ecology. As an entry point to better understand the molecular basis of these factors, in addition to filling a critical gap in the genomic resources available for parasitic Hymenoptera, we sequenced and assembled the genome of Tr. basalis using short (454, Illumina) and long read (Oxford Nanopore) sequencing technologies. The three sequencing methods produced 32 million reads (4.10 Gb; 27.9×), which were assembled into 7,586 scaffolds. The 147 Mb (N50: 42.8 kb) assembly contains complete sequences for 93.1% of the insect BUSCO dataset, and an extensive annotation protocol resulted in 14,158 protein-coding gene models, 12,197 (86%) of which had a blast hit in GenBank. Repetitive elements comprised 13.8% of the genome, and a phylogenomic analysis recovered Tr. basalis as sister to Chalcidoidea, a result in line with other studies. We identified 174 rapidly evolving gene families in Tr. basalis , including olfactory receptors and pheromone/general odorant binding proteins. These genetic elements are an obligatory portion of the parasitoid-host relationship, and the draft genome of Tr. basalis has and will continue to be useful in elucidating these relationships at finer resolution.

The genera Doddiella Kieffer, 1913 and Aratala Dodd, 1927 are treated as junior synonyms of of Aneuroscelio Kieffer, 1913 following study of the rediscovered holotype of the type species Aneuroscelio rufipes Kieffer, 1913 (syn. nov.). The nine species previously recognized in Doddiella are all transferred to Aneuroscelio (comb. nov.). Calliscelio schlingeri (Masner & Johnson) is recognized as a junior synonym of Calliscelio vitilevuensis (Fullaway) ( syn. nov. ). Huddlestonium exu Polaszek & Johnson is recorded from Kenya, significantly expanding its known range from West Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, São Tomé). A new species of the genus Tyrannoscelio Masner, Johnson & Arias-Penna, T. cerradensis sp. nov , is described from Paraguay and the Center-West of Brazil (Mato Grosso). The depositories of the holotypes of five recently described are corrected.

Proterosceliopsis was erected by Ortega-Blanco et al. (2014) in their treatment of scelionid genera in Cretaceous amber from Álava, Spain. The generic description appears to have been based on specimens in which only the dorsal aspects of the mesosoma and metasoma were visible, as characters of the mesopleuron, metapleuron, lateral pronotum, and ventral metasoma were not mentioned. We here provide a comprehensive description of the genus that includes characters from throughout the body and we reinterpret some of the characters presented by Ortega-Blanco et al. (2014). Our analysis of Proterosceliopsis in the context of extant and fossil platygastroids places this group as a lineage well outside of the current families. We here designate Proterosceliopsis as the type genus of a new family, Proterosceliopsidae Talamas, Johnson, Shih & Ren, fam. nov. , and describe five new species: Proterosceliopsis ambulata Talamas, Shih & Ren, sp. nov. , P. nigon Talamas, Shih & Ren, sp. nov. , P. plurima Talamas, Shih & Ren, sp. nov. , P. torquata Talamas, Shih & Ren, sp. nov. , and P. wingerathi Talamas, Shih & Ren, sp. nov. We provide a key to all presently known species in the genus. The oldest known specimen of Platygastridae s.s., in Burmese amber, is presented and compared to Proterosceliopsidae fam. nov.