Revised relationships of the endemic New Zealand subfamily Pronkiinae stat. nov. (Hymenoptera, Braconidae).

The endemic New Zealand braconid wasp tribe Pronkiini (type and only genus Pronkia van Achterberg, 1990) has, until now, been placed in the subfamily Meteorideinae. We obtained the first molecular data for Pronkia comprising sequences for five heritage gene fragments (the barcoding region of COI, the nuclear protein-coding elongation factor-1 alpha gene, and three ribosomal genes, 28S, 18S, and 16S) and analysed them together with data from a wide range of other non-cyclostome braconid subfamilies. None of our analyses support the inclusion of Pronkia within Meteorideinae; instead, Pronkia was placed in the strongly supported sigalphoid clade when each of the genes was analysed separately, as well as in the analysis of the combined dataset. In the latter, it was recovered as a sister group to Sigalphinae, but with very low support, essentially in a trichotomy with each of the three sigalphoid subfamilies monophyletic with both 100% UFB and SH-aLTR support. We therefore elevate Pronkiini to subfamily status, Pronkiinaestat. nov., and provide a diagnosis of the new subfamily, along with a photographic portfolio of representative species. Morphological characters relevant to Pronkiinaestat. nov. relationships are discussed.