Acanthoscelio Ashmead, 1893: 210, 211, 236. Original description. Type: Acanthoscelio
americanus Ashmead, by original designation. Keyed.
Acanthoscelio: Ashmead, 1894: 218. Keyed.
Acanthoscelio: Dalla Torre, 1898: 497. Catalog of species.
Acanthoscelio: Ashmead, 1903: 93, 94. Keyed.
Acanthoscelio: Brues, 1908: 27, 29, 39. Diagnosis, list of species, keyed.
Acanthoscelio: Kieffer, 1908: 115. Keyed.
Acanthoscelio: Kieffer, 1910: 63. Keyed.
Acanthoscelio: Kieffer, 1913: 224. Description.
Acanthoscelio: Kieffer, 1926: 265, 300. Description, keyed, key to species.
Acanthoscelio: Muesebeck & Walkely, 1956: 323. Citation of type species.
Acanthoscelio: Masner, 1976: 15. Description.
Acanthoscelio: De Santis, 1980: 309. Catalog of species of Brazil.

Acanthoscelio was first described in Ashmead (1893).

Head large, subquadrate with frontal ledge as in Sparasion Latreille. Occiput rounded and margined. Lateral ocelli not reaching margin of eye. Eyes very large and rounded. Antennae as in Scelio Latreille. Maxillary palps three-jointed. Thorax ovoid; prothorax visible from above and truncate anteriorly. Mesonotum convex, without furrows. Scutellum large and quadrate. Postscutellum (metanotum) produced into large, erect spine. Metanotum (propodeum) short, abrupt, and with angles prominent. Front wings with submarginal veins remote from costa and joining punctiform marginal vein at middle of wing. Stigmal vein long, obligque with a long radial branch that forms long, lanceolate marginal cell. Abdomen sessile, oblong-oval, depressed carinated along sides and six segmented. Legs as in Scelio Latreille; tibial spurs well developed. Acanthoscelio has affinities with Scelio except for mesoscutellum, metascutellum, wing venation and frontal ledge. Acanthoscelio has affinites with Sparasion because of cephalic characters.

Following Acanthoscelio's original description, Ashmead, Brues, and Kieffer contribute a few additional character descriptions. Ashmead (1894) mentions that the postmarginal vein is not really developed and the submarginal vein reaches the costa to form a large stigma. Brues (1908) discovered the following additional characters: middle tooth between the two larger teeth; scutellum large, quadrate with posterior margin slightly arcuately emarginate and lateral angles acute; anterior tibiae and all femora clavate; the four posterior tibiae subclavate; tarsal claws simple; first abdominal segment without horn. According to Kieffer (1908, 1910, 1913), the scutellum is unarmed, the metanotum is not nearly as long as the scutellum, one to three carinae or transverse and arched lamellae are on the "front", the marginalis is filled with one small, cuneiform stigma, and the stigmalis is very short.

The most recent description of Acanthoscelio was by Masner (1976). Acanthoscelio is a...

rather robust, sometimes sexually dichromatic species (males generally much darker than females). Palpal formula 3-2, with basal maxillary palpus elongate and seemingly 2-segmented. Mandibles strong, rather prominent, tridentate or subtridentate. Eyes bare...Antennae 12-segmented in both sexes...female with 6 segmented semiabrupt club, in male with A3 distinctly elongate and A5 with longitudinal carina. Skaphion absent. Prepectus (netrion) present...submarginal vein in fore wing indicated only basally, marginalis and stigmalis vague, no radialis and no radial cell.