Enicospilus affinis Hedwig, 1957

Johansson, Niklas, Ameri, Ali, Riedel, Matthias, Talebi, Ali Asghar & Ebrahimi, Ebrahim, 2021, Contribution to the Ophioninae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) of Iran with the description of 16 new species and an illustrated key to the Eremotylus of the Western Palaearctic, Zootaxa 5023 (2), pp. 151-206 : 154

Enicospilus affinis Hedwig, 1957 stat. rev.

Figs 1A–D

Enicospilus affinis Hedwig, 1957: 105–106 . Lectotype ♀ in SMNS from Iran, examined.

Material examined: IRAN: Lectotype ♀ of E. affinis Hedwig, Belutschistan Jranshar 800 m. a.s. 11–21 May 1954 Richter & Schäuffele leg. ( SMNS).

Remarks: Study of the type of Enicospilus affinis Hedwig, 1957 housed in SMNS shows that the previous synonymy with E. ocellatus Shestakov, 1926 proposed by Horstmann (1981) is erroneous and that E. affinis stat. rev. is a valid species. Possibly Horstmann was referring to E. ocellatus f. albopictus, described from Egypt by Aubert & Shaumar (1978), the type of which could not be located for this study. According to the description and pictures in Gadallah et al. 2017, Enicospilus pseudoculator Gadallah & Soliman, 2017 is morphologically very similar to E. affinis and the only distinguishing character is that the type of E. affinis has two additional narrow whitish stripes on the mesoscutum and that the anterior and posterior white spots on mesopleuron are connected. This seems likely to be a result of a variation in colour, but the type series, as well as all known specimens of E. pseudoculator are indeed very homogenous in colouration. None of the specimens studied by the first author or included in the description has any indication of more extensive pale markings as displayed by the type of E. affinis . As E. affinis is only known by the type female, any conclusion on its relation to E. pseudoculator needs to be investigated further and the two are here treated as separate species.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Enicospilus affinis Hedwig, 1957 stat. rev., holotype ♀ (SMNS). A) Habitus, lateral view; B) head, anterior view; C) labels; D) alar sclerites,; E) habitus, dorsal view. Photos: Hege Vårdal.