Paraphyletic taxa and taxonomic chaining: evaluating the classification ofbraconine wasps (Hymenoptera : Braconidae) using 28S D2-3 rDNA sequences and morphological characters

The parasitoid wasp subfamily Braconinae is dominated by the type genus Bra con, a genus which probably now contains more than 1000 described species a nd no reliable subgeneric groupings. By analysing 288 D2-3 rDNA sequences i n representative braconines we show that the genus is paraphyletic. It is u nlikely that sufficient molecular data will be amassed, or new morphologica l characters discovered, in the foreseeable future to divide this huge amor phous genus into reciprocally monophyletic clades. As we believe that it is unsatisfactory to leave this situation as it stands we propose that Bracon should be treated formally as a likely paraphyletic taxon, and we argue th at the ICZN should consider creating such a category On the basis of our es timated phylogeny we also propose a revised classification for this subfami ly that avoids paraphyletic tribes and subtribes, replacing several of thes e with informal genus groups. (C) 2001 The Linnean Society of London.