Revealing new horizons: Unraveling palaeotropical Eucharitidae (Chalcidoidea) and a novel genus discovery

The genus Ancylotropus (Hymenoptera: Eucharitidae) comprises ant parasitoids found across the palaeotropical region. Six species of Ancylotropus have been described from Southeast Asia and Madagascar: A. cariniscutis Cameron, A. ivondroi (Risbec), A. keralensis Girish Kumar and Narendran, A. manipurensis (Clausen), A. montanus (Girault), and A. seyrigi (Risbec). Additionally, approximately 26 undescribed species provisionally assigned to Ancylotropus are recorded from Africa. Notably, species from Africa, Madagascar, and Southeast Asia exhibit distinct morphological differences, and recent molecular analyses indicate they are not monophyletic. This suggests the potential existence of three separate genera, with new genera possibly deserving recognition in Africa and Madagascar. This study employed sequencing of two ribosomal genes (28S D2, 28S D3-5) and two mitochondrial genes (COI-nj, COII) from 76 taxa to evaluate the monophyly of Ancylotropus and determine if new genera should be described.