Small hymenopteran riders , body length about 5 mm. They differ from others in the following features: claws of tarsi simple with basal lobe; mesoscutum not sculptured and notauli absent; vein RS + Ma of front wing not complete; vein CUb of hind wing weak or absent; posterior coxal cavities open; 3rd median tergite smooth. Biology is little studied. For the genus Lytopylus, data on plant relations for only one species were published: L. unicolor (Shenefelt, 1970), parasitoid caterpillars of the potato butterfly Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873) from the Gelechiidae family [1] .
Lytopylus was first described in 1862 by the German zoologist Johann Forster , but without specifying its species. Only in 1905 did they include the first species Lytopylus azygos Viereck, 1905 [2] , which became its type [3] . Subsequently, the species of this taxon were considered for several decades as part of the genera Bassus Fabricius , Microdus Nees , Agathis Latreille , Agathellina Enderlein, 1920 . Restored from synonymy and isolated as a valid genus in 2009 [4] . However, all taxonomic problems were solved only in 2016 with the synonymization of three more generic taxa and the transfer from several other genera to Lytopylus of several more species [5] [1] :
- L. alejandromasisi - L. alfredomainieri - L. anamariamongeae - L. angelagonzalezae - L. azygos typus - L. bicarinatum - L. bicristatus - L. boliviensis - L. bradzlotnicki - L. brasiliense - L. cesarmorai - L. colleenhitchcockae - L .eddysanchezi - L. eliethcantillanoae - L. ericchapmani - L. erythrogaster - L. facetus - L. femoratus - L. flavicalcar - L. gahyunae - L. gisukae - L. gregburtoni - L. guillermopereirai - L. gustavoindunii - L. hartmanguidoi - L. hernanbravoi - L. hokwoni - L. ivanniasandovalae - L. jessicadimauroae - L. jessiehillae - L. johanvalerioi - L. josecortesi - L. luisgaritai - L. macadamiae - L. mariamartachavarriae - L. melanocephalus - L. melleus - Miguelviquezi - L. mingfangi - L. motohasegawai - L. niger - L. nigrobalteatus - L. okchunae - L. pablocobbi - L. pastranai - L. rebeccashapleyae - L. robertofernandezi - L. robpringlei - L. rogerblancoi - L. salvador lopezi - L. sandraberriosae - L. sangyeoni - L. sarahmeierottoae - L. sergiobermudezi - L. sigifredomarini - L. spinulatus - L. tayrona - L. vaughntani - L. youngcheae
