Aximopsis Ashmead, 1904

Delvare, G., Escolà, A. Ribes, Stojanova, A. M., Benoit, L., Lecomte, J. & Askew, R. R., 2019, Exploring insect biodiversity: the parasitic Hymenoptera, chiefly Chalcidoidea, associated with seeds of asphodels (Xanthorrhoeaceae), with the description of nine new species belonging to Eurytomidae and Torymidae, Zootaxa 4597 (1), pp. 1-90 : 60-61

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4597.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F8FD30CA-1B84-4134-91BC-B69736DB0EA8

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03ED8793-FFC2-3B3E-D9F0-A7A2E740FDE9

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Aximopsis Ashmead, 1904
status

 

Aximopsis Ashmead, 1904 View in CoL View at ENA

Lotfalizadeh et al. (2007) proposed a broad definition of Aximopsis which embraces the nodularis species group of Eurytoma and includes species that are parasitoids of a variety of endophytic hosts in stems and leaf-mines, beetle galleries in wood and in twigs containing nests of aculeate Hymenoptera . The genus is speciose in tropical countries. It is included by Zerova (2010) in the robusta species group of Eurytoma based on the presence of a ventral shelf on the mesepisternum.

Two species were found associated with asphodels in Europe, A. collina and the newly described A. balajasi . They are morphologically extremely close and would not have been separated without molecular data. They are distinguished from other Palaearctic species of Aximopsis by their biology; they have been reared from galls of Diplolepis species ( Lotfalizadeh et al. 2006; Askew et al. 2006) and, as here reported, from seeds of asphodels. Other European Aximopsis species with known biology are parasitoids of xylophagous Coleoptera ( Zerova 1995, 2010) or of aculeate Hymenoptera nesting in twigs ( Zerova 1995, 2010) and are often collected on dead trunks or branches. Morphologically A. collina and A. balajasi are distinguished from their congeners by the following characters: lower face with radiating raised carinulae reaching above lower margin of antennal toruli ( Fig. 27A View FIGURES 27 ), pedicel without basidorsal constriction ( Fig. 27C View FIGURES 27 ), clava effectively 1-segmented with all its segments fused ( Fig. 28C View FIGURES 28 ), ventral shelf of mesepisternum short and distinctly elbowed with epicnemium ( Figs 26 View FIGURE 26 , 28A View FIGURES 28 ); setation of fore wing entirely white and marginal vein shorter than both the stigmal and postmarginal veins ( Figs 26 View FIGURE 26 , 28A View FIGURES 28 ).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Eurytomidae

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