Deciphering Morphological Variability: Addressing Taxonomic Ambiguities in Contemporary Species Delimitation...

Species delimitation in Charipinae hyperparasitoids (Hymenoptera: Figitidae) is notoriously difficult due to their minute size and limited morphological variability. Traditional diagnostic characters sometimes show intraspecific variation, raising concerns about their reliability. Here, we applied an integrative taxonomic framework to evaluate species boundaries among six species of Alloxysta Förster and four species of Phaenoglyphis Förster. We combined a morphological dataset of 53 characters with data from three molecular markers (COI, ITS2, and 16S rRNA) and reconstructed phylogenies under maximum-likelihood criteria. Phylogenies consistently recovered morphologically defined taxa as well-supported clades, confirming the overall reliability of traditional characters (pronotal and propodeal carinae, radial cell shape, and flagellomere proportions). On the other hand, molecular evidence refined certain species limits and highlighted cases of potential cryptic variation. Our results demonstrate that morphology still provides a strong baseline for Charipinae taxonomy, but integration with molecular data yields more robust and stable classifications. This study underscores the value of multi-locus approaches for resolving taxonomic ambiguities and provides a framework for future ecological and evolutionary research on these hyperparasitoid wasps.