A survey for potential biological control agents of Pereskia aculeata Miller (Cactaceae) in Brazil reveals two new species of Horismenus Walker (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae).

This paper deals with the description of two new species of Horismenus Walker (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) from Brazil, parasitoids of larvae of Adetus analis (Haldeman) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Both species are similar to Horismenus steirastomae (Girault), a species that also parasitizes cerambycids. Adetus analis is a pest of Sechium edule (Jacq.) Swartz (Cucurbitaceae), a minor crop in Brazil, Argentina and U.S.A., but also feeds in stems of Pereskia aculeata Miller (Cactaceae), an ornamental plant that has become a problematic weed species in Africa, where it was introduced. The two new Horismenus species are described, diagnosed, and compared to H. steirastomae.

Three new species of Horismenus Walker (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) associated with seed pods of Pithecellobium dulce (Fabaceae).

Horismenus abnormicaulis sp. nov., H. patensis sp. nov. and H. zuleidae sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), all authored by Pikart, Costa & Hansson, are described from material obtained from seed pods of Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth. (Fabaceae) collected in Northeastern Brazil. The seed pods were infested with larvae of Coleoptera (Chrysomelidae (Bruchinae) and Curculionidae). The associations of the Horismenus species and the beetle larvae have not been established. Morphological similarities between these new species and previously described species with host known suggest that H. patensis and H. zuleidae are primary parasitoids of Bruchinae, whereas H. abnormicaulis may act as a hyperparasitoid on other Horismenus species. The three species are compared with similar species of Horismenus.

Paracrias pluteus (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae) in Brazil: new distribution and host records, and with a new host group for Paracrias.

Bruchines damage agricultural crops and trees, reducing the quantity and quality of the seeds. The aim of this study is to record, for the first time, Paracrias pluteus as a parasitoid on the immature stages of Sennius spodiogaster and Sennius cupreatus on seeds of Melanoxylon brauna in Teixeiras, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Paracrias pluteus is a parasitoid without previous host records and known only from Costa Rica. Specimens obtained in this study add to knowledge of the biology of Paracrias species with a new host group (Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae), and the first host record and a new distribution for Paracrias pluteus.