The gender of the genus Basalys is masculine
Following a few queries I wanted to explain that the gender of Basalys is certainly masculine, though this has been widely misunderstood and there are many misspellings in the literature and online.
There are two reasons why:
1) etymology - Basalys Westwood, 1833 is derived from Greek βασις (foot) + αλυς (listlessness); an appropriate name for a wasp which will not sit still. Since αλυς is masculine this genus has masculine gender (M.A.Alonso-Zarazaga pers. comm.; ICZN 1999: Article 30.1.2). Westwood was somewhat of a classical linguist and commonly used Greek words when composing the names of genera, so while the species of this genus usually have a distinct basal vein, linguistically Basalys is not connected with the Latin word basalis (basal) except possibly that Westwood may have intended it as a homophonic pun (Notton, 2014).
2) gender agreement in Westwood's original description of the genus (Westwood, 1833), not with the species epithet fumipennis which could be either feminine or masculine, but in the following Latin description where Basalys is described with masculine adjective forms 'Niger, nitidus, ...'. for comparaison just above in the same article, Streblocera (feminine) is described with feminine adjective forms ' ... nigra nitida...'. So Westwood treated Basalys as masculine in the original description.
Notton DG (2014) A catalogue of the types of Diapriinae (Hymenoptera, Diapriidae) at the Natural History Museum, London. European Journal of Taxonomy 75(75): 1–123. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2014.75
Westwood, J.O. (1833) ‘Descriptions of several new British forms amongst the parasitic hymenopterous insects’, London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 3 (17), pp. 342–344.
