In the shade of a snow flat: Parasitoids of Tagiades litigiosa Möschler (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) with the description of a new species of Brachymeria Westwood (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) from South India

The water snow flat Tagiades litigiosa Möschler (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), widely distributed across tropical regions, has been the subject of limited studies on its natural enemies. Here, we report the first recorded instance of pupal parasitoids Tagiades litigiosa from South India. A newly discovered species, Brachymeria tagiades sp. nov. is described and illustrated as a pupal parasitoid of this butterfly. Additionally, we record B. bengalensis (Cameron, 1897) and B. euploeae (Westwood, 1837) (Brachymeriinae) and Tainaniella malabarica Narendran, 1989 (Haltichellinae) emerging from T. litigiosa pupae in the same region. An unidentified braconid parasitoid was also observed attacking the larvae of T. litigiosa. Furthermore, the genus Tainaniella Masi is reviewed, with detailed illustrations and redescriptions based on fresh specimen of T. malabarica and type images from various repositories.