Tropicolabus foxi ( Davis 1898 )

Dal Pos, Davide, Heilman, Victoria & Welter-Schultes, Francisco, 2022, Platylabini (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ichneumoninae) of the south-eastern United States: new distributional data, taxonomic notes, illustrated keys, and an annotated catalogue of the genera and species, Journal of Natural History 56, pp. 1869-1938 : 1927-1931

Tropicolabus foxi ( Davis 1898)

( Figures 36, 36c , 37b , 38b , 39b , 40 d-f, 41)

Platylabus foxi Davis, 1898: 352 (descr.); Ashmead 1900b: 567 (cat.); Dalla Torre, 1900: 783 (cat.); Bradley 1903: 282 (cat., key); Cresson 1928: 17 (cat.); Townes 1944: 314 (as a synonym of Thaumatoteles ornatus (Cresson)) .

Platylabus Foxy ; Bethoumieu, 1904: 57 (cat.).

Tropicolabus foxi Heinrich 1959: 216 (cat., notes, resurrection); Heinrich 1962b: 754 (descr.); Carlson 1979: 546 (cat.); Yu and Horstmann 1997: 683 (cat.); Yu et al. (2016).

Original type series

Holotype ♂, by monotypy ( ANSP). Davis (1898, p. 353) clearly stated that the description was based on only ‘One specimen from Camden, N.J’. This specimen can be referred to as the holotype designated by monotypy ( ICZN 1999, Article 73.1.2).

Type locality

United States of America, New Jersey, Camden.

Type specimens examined ( Figures 38b , 40 d-f)

Holotype: ‘[White label] Camden N.J./92 // [White label] Platylabus / foxi /Davis/ [White label] COLLECTION OF/G. C. DAVIS. // [Red label] Holo-TYPE/ 4454 ’ (specimen examined).

Material examined

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, FLORIDA: Alachua Co ., Gainsville, Beville Hts., 02 July 1980, Black Light Trap, L.A. Stange, 1♀ ( FSCA) .

Updated distribution ( Figure 41 )

New Jersey ( Davis 1898); Florida (new state record).

Host

Unknown

Female

Hereby described for the first time (see below).

Comments

Davis (1898, p. 352) described Platylabus foxi based on a single male specimen from Camden (New Jersey). The taxon was later synonymised under Thaumatoteles ornatus (= Ambloplisus ornatus ) by Townes (1944, p. 314) without adding any evidence or comments for the new synonym. Heinrich (1959, p. 216), after examining the holotype, resurrected foxi , noting that it can be easily distinguished from Ambloplisus ornatus by the characters mentioned above (see Comparative diagnosis).

The specimen hereby examined and described represents the first record since the original description as well as the first record for the south-eastern United States, and the first female of the species. The current scattered distribution ( Figure 40f ) indicates that the species has been overlooked in collections for many years, due to the considerable chromatic convergence with Ambloplisus ornatus .

Description of female ( Figures 36 , 37b , 39b )

Body length about 8.5 mm. Fore wing length 6 mm.

Colour. Head mostly yellowish white, with frons, ocellar triangle, central part of vertex, temple (except for outer orbit), and occiput (except ventral part) black; central part of clypeus and apical segments of maxillary palpi orangish yellow; flagellum dark brownblack, with ventral part of scape and flagellomeres 6/7 to 13/14 yellowish white. Mesosoma mostly yellowish white, with the following black: pronotal collar, meoscutum (except two yellow central lines), area below subtegular ridge, the area corresponding to the mesopleural pit, most of the mesopleuron, axilla, anterior part of propodeum, and posterior part of area petiolaris; fore and mid leg reddish orange with coxae and trochanters yellowish white, hind leg reddish orange with a yellowish-white spot on dorsal side of coxa and trochanter, and segments 3–5 of tarsus infuscate; wing hyaline. Metasoma mostly reddish orange, with tergite 1 yellowish white and a dark brown spot on postpetiole, and tergites 1–3 each with a yellowish-white continuous posterior band.

Head. Face about 0.4–0.5× as high as wide (width between compound eyes at level of antennal socket; height from antennal socket to clypeal suture), moderately matt with well-defined and dense punctation; clypeus matt with dense punctation, concave in lateral view and with apical margin lenticular in frontal view, tentorial pit relatively large and well defined; mandible twisted, with internal tooth 0.5× as long as external tooth; malar space 1.5–1.6× as long as mandible width; malar sulcus absent. Frons smooth right behind antennal sockets, transversely irregularly striate going towards front ocellus; ocellar triangle slightly elevated, distance between lateral ocellus and internal margin of eye about 0.9× as long as interocellar distance; vertex smooth and shagreened. Gena smooth, shining, without punctation, and roundly narrowed behind eye in dorsal view; occipital carina complete, meeting hypostomal carina at base of mandible. Antenna with 23 flagellomeres (antenna broken), with 13–23 flagellomeres ventrally flattened.

Mesosoma . Pronotal neck and ventral part of pronotum matt and coarsely rugose, central part of pronotum smooth and shining with irregular, short striations, dorsolateral part of pronotum matt with rugose coarse punctures; epomia indistinct. Mesoscutum matt, rugose punctate in anterior part, with wrinkles where notauli are located, and smooth and impunctate towards the middle and posterior part, notaulus distinguishable only in anterior part; scutellum slightly elevated above metascutellum, globular, matt, and indistinctly rugose-punctate, lateral carina of scutellum present and reaching apex. Mesopleuron, except for speculum, shining with superficial punctures, speculum smooth without any punctures. Mesosternum almost matt, with dense and superficial punctures, posterior transverse carina absent at level of middle coxa. Metapleuron densely punctured throughout, juxtacoxal carina present but weak. Propodeum irregularly wrinkled with area superomedial well separated from area basalis which is slightly projecting in short tooth-like projections; area externa well separated from area dentipara, area petiolaris well defined. Fore wing areolet rhomboidal, 1cu-a slightly distal to M&RS. Fore and middle coxa polished and shining on dorsal side, matt and irregularly punctured on ventral side; hind coxa densely punctured on ventral side, shining and smooth on dorsal side.

Metasoma. Metasoma modified, with only 5 tergites visible in dorsal view. T1 dorsally flattened with lateral carinae running across entire length of tergite, postpetiole from rugose to striate, median field slightly indicated; T2 anteriorly rugose and medioposteriorly punctate, gastrocoeli and thyridia wider that space between them, gastrocoeli irregularly striate; T3 densely punctate anteriorly, sparsely punctate posteriorly; rest of metasoma superficially and sparsely punctate; hypopygium large, covering base of ovipositor; ovipositor slightly downcurved.

Figures

Figure 36. Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898), ♀. a) Habitus, lateral view. b) Mesoscutum and head, dorsolateral view. c) Metasoma, dorsal view.

Figure 37. Propodeum and metasoma, dorso-lateral view. a) Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868). b) Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898).

Figure 38. Face, frontal view. a) Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868), holotype ♀. b) Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898), holotype ♀.

Figure 39. Head, dorsal view. a) Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868), ♀. b) Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898), ♀.

Figure 40. Comparison of holotypes of Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868) and Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898). a) Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868), habitus, dorsal view. b) Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868), habitus, lateral view. c) Ambloplisus ornatus (Cresson, 1868), labels. d) Tropicolabis foxi (Davis, 1898), habitus, dorsal view. e) Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898), habitus, lateral view. f) Tropicolabis foxi (Davis, 1898), labels.

Figure 41. Tropicolabus foxi (Davis, 1898), distributional map: known records (in blue) and newly recorded state (in yellow).