Parasitism of Zatypota riverai Gauld (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) on Anelosimus baeza Agnarsson (Araneae: Theridiidae) in northeast Brazil, with a description of the male.

Ichneumonid wasps of the Polysphincta genus-group (Polysphinctini sensu Townes hereafter "polysphinctine wasps") are exclusively koinobiont ectoparasitoids of spiders (Fitton et al. 1987; Gauld 2006). Since the first report of a spider's behavior being manipulated by a polysphinctine wasp (Eberhard 2000), several studies have since focused on unravelling the mechanisms and evolution of this association (e.g. Gonzaga & Sobczak 2007; Matsumoto 2009; Sobczak et al. 2009; Eberhard 2010; Gonzaga & Sobczak 2011; Korenko & Pekár 2011; Korenko et al. 2013; Sobczak et al. 2014; Takasuka et al. 2015).

The wasp Flacopimpla varelae Gauld (Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae), parasitoid of the spider Achaearanea tingo Levi (Theridiidae: Theridiinae), with description of the male wasp.

Parasitoid organisms can manipulate the morphology, physiology and/or behavior of their hosts to increase their own survival (Moore 2002; Korenko et al. 2015a). Wasps of the Polysphincta genus-group sensu Gauld Dubois, 2006 (hereafter polysphinctine wasps) are well known to act exclusively as koinobiont ectoparasitoids of spiders (Gauld Dubois 2006). The host range of these wasps is remarkably narrow and often species-specific; individuals of some polysphinctine genera (e.g. Hymenoepimecis, Acrotaphus) usually attack orb-weaver spiders (Pádua et al. 2016), whereas other are specialized on spiders that construct three-dimensional webs. Fritzén (2014), for example, discussed that Oxyrrhexis Föerster, 1869, Zatypota Föerster, 1869 and Flacopimpla Gauld, 1991 are specialized on theridiid hosts, the last two mainly or exclusively on spiders of the subfamily Theridiinae.