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www.potatogrower.com 43 entomologist at the ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "With this monograph now published, for the first time, these wasps of agricultural importance will be reliably identified by researchers worldwide." In the Afrotropical region, the superfamily Cynipoidea is represented by 306 described species and 54 genera, but there are hundreds more species yet to be described, adds Buffington, who coauthored a paper describing the monograph in the April 2015 issue of the journal ZooKeys. The resource, which brings together all that's currently known about the Afrotropical members of this wasp superfamily "under one roof," will make it easier to identify and categorize new species as they're discovered. It will also broaden scientific understanding of their taxonomic associations and biological diversity. One important use could be the identification of wasp species having potential as biological control agents, such as those that parasitize crop-damaging flies or that form galls in the tissues of invasive weeds in the United States. Historically, the identification of cynipoid wasps has been rather piecemeal. Some specimens that were collected were not cross-checked with existing >>> This article originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of ARS's AgResearch Magazine. repositories of the wasps, or closely related species went ignored entirely, leading to a spotty taxonomic effort. So, Buffington and colleagues decided to pool their resources and expertise in conducting an exhaustive search and re-examination of specimens obtained from field sites and museum collections around the world. "There are few regional keys to identification in the world that are useful, and we generated the first such key for the Afrotropical Region, with long-term plans to have keys such as these made available to other parts of the world over the next 10 years," says Buffington, who collaborated with Simon van Noort of the Natural History Department at the Iziko South African Museum and Mattias Forshage of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. The final product resulting from this long- term initiative will provide an unparalleled comprehensive identification resource to a diverse array of economically and agriculturally significant wasp, bee and ant species in the Afrotropical region and elsewhere, adds van Noort. PG A light microscope image of a wasp species of Afrostilba. Members of this group are parasitoids of leaf-mining flies. This Didyctium wasp is found worldwide. 0.5 mm 0.5 mm