Helorus ruficornis Förster, 1856

Vogel, Jonathan, Sauren, Jerome & Peters, Ralph S., 2024, New evidence on the identity of the European Helorus species (Hymenoptera, Proctotrupoidea, Helorida), Biodiversity Data Journal 12, pp. e 122523-e 122523 : e122523-

Helorus ruficornis Förster, 1856

Helorus ruficornis Förster, 1856: 143

Helorus flavipes Kieffer, 1907: 267

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Niehuis, Oliver; individualCount: 1; sex: female; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: upload pending; occurrenceID: 088D169F-1564-5BED-8633-68ED7E6BC33B; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Location: country: Germany; countryCode: DE; stateProvince: Hesse; municipality: Rheingau-Taunus; locality: Lorch am Rhein, oberhalb der Burg Nollig ; verbatimElevation: 244 m; decimalLatitude: 50.0491; decimalLongitude: 7.7978; Event: eventID: 14; samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2013-7 - 15 / 21; year: 1856; habitat: MF 1; Record Level: institutionID: ZFMK; collectionID: ZFMK-TIS- 2628159; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Niehuis, Oliver; individualCount: 1; sex: female; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: GBHYG 2962-24; occurrenceID: 98CA063E-F666-55B1-AB87-D587779D44B8; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Location: country: Germany; countryCode: DE; stateProvince: Hesse; municipality: Rheingau-Taunus; locality: Lorch am Rhein, oberhalb der Burg Nollig ; verbatimElevation: 248 m; decimalLatitude: 50.0495; decimalLongitude: 7.7966; Event: eventID: 24; samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2015-6 / 7 - 25 / 1; year: 1856; habitat: MF 3; Record Level: institutionID: ZFMK; collectionID: ZFMK-TIS- 2629476; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Niehuis, Oliver; individualCount: 1; sex: male; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: GBHYG 2963-24; occurrenceID: F5998079-436E-5AE3-8DCA-9879BBE8D9E5; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Location: country: Germany; countryCode: DE; stateProvince: Hesse; municipality: Rheingau-Taunus; locality: Lorch am Rhein, oberhalb der Burg Nollig ; verbatimElevation: 244 m; decimalLatitude: 50.0491; decimalLongitude: 7.7978; Event: eventID: 28; samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2015-6 - 12 / 17; year: 1856; habitat: MF 4; Record Level: institutionID: ZFMK; collectionID: ZFMK-TIS- 2629477; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Niehuis, Oliver; individualCount: 1; sex: male; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: GBHYG 2964-24; occurrenceID: 8D057C7F-36BC-5FFE-9CCA-79BE03D7DFDE; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Location: country: Germany; countryCode: DE; stateProvince: Hesse; municipality: Rheingau-Taunus; locality: Lorch am Rhein, oberhalb der Burg Nollig ; verbatimElevation: 244 m; decimalLatitude: 50.0491; decimalLongitude: 7.7978; Event: eventID: 28; samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2015-6 - 12 / 17; year: 1856; habitat: MF 4; Record Level: institutionID: ZFMK; collectionID: ZFMK-TIS- 2629478; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Doczkal, Dieter; Segerer, A.; individualCount: 1; sex: female; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: no DNA barcode available; occurrenceID: 4ABA2156-B3B0-5396-B6B8-7D7F9D66CEB6; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Location: country: Germany; countryCode: DE; stateProvince: Bavaria; municipality: Regensburg; locality: Nature reserve " Fellinger Berg " ; verbatimElevation: 400 m; decimalLatitude: 49.0298; decimalLongitude: 12.1567; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2012-7 - 22 / 29; year: 1856; Record Level: institutionID: ZSM; collectionID: BC ZSM HYM 20589; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Lectotype. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; sex: female; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: no DNA barcode available; occurrenceID: 8226F3FB-D627-55F5-B5F8-3963448A96AD; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Event: year: 1856; Record Level: institutionID: NHMW; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Paralectotype. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; sex: female; disposition: in collection; associatedSequences: no DNA barcode available; occurrenceID: 1988A684-B80A-5040-94BC-E7072DD4F587; Taxon: family: Heloridae ; genus: Helorus ; specificEpithet: ruficornis ; scientificNameAuthorship: Förster, 1856; Event: eventDate: 1860-9 - 11; year: 1856; Record Level: institutionID: NHMW; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

CO 1 barcode

n = 4. Maximum intraspecific distance: 0.5 %. Minimum distance to closest species ( H. coruscus ): 1.8 %. Consensus sequence (625 bp):

AATTATAGGTTTATCATTAAGAATAATTATTCGAATAGAATTAAGATCACCCAATTCACTAATTAAAAATGATCAAATTTATAATTCAATTGTTACAATACATGCATTTATAATAATTTTTTTTTTTATTATACCAATTACTGTTGGAGGATTTGGAAATTGATTAACACCAATAATAATAATATCCCCAGATATATCATTTCCTCGAATAAATAATTTAAGATTTTGATTTTTAGTACCAAGAATCTTTTTAATAATATCAGGAAGAATTATTGACCAAGGATCAGGAACAGGATGAACAATTTATCCCCCATTATCATTAAATTTAGCTCATAATGGAAAATCAGTTGATTTAACTATTTTATCTCTTCATATTGCTGGAATTTCATCTATTTTAGCATCAATTAATTTTATTACAACAATTATTAATATAAAAATTAAATCATTTAATATAGAAAAAATTAATTTATTTCTTTGATCAATACTTTTAACAACAATTTTACTTCTTCTATCTTTACCAGTTTTAGCAGGAGGAATTACAATAATTTTATCAGACCGAAATTTAAACTCTTCATTTTTTGACCCAAGAGGAGGKGGKGATCCAATCCTTTTTCAACATCTATTT

Remarks

A full list of synonyms was recently given by Buffington and Copeland (2016) and is not repeated here. Please note, however, that Zhang et al. (2020) re-instated H. elgoni Risbec, 1950 as a valid species and that H. coruscus Haliday is re-instated herein. The synonym so far listed under H. ruficornis , H. flavipes Kieffer 1907 was considered a synonym of H. coruscus by Pschorn-Walcher (1955), i. e. by re-instating H. coruscus , it would have to be listed under that name. However, Townes (1977) saw the type material of H. flavipes and designated a lectotype and placed H. flavipes as a synonym of H. ruficornis . Examination of this material, which is apparently very similar to H. coruscus (see Pschorn-Walcher (1955)), might have given Townes (1977) the confidence to synonymise H. coruscus under H. ruficornis , without seeing the type of H. coruscus . We did not examine the lectotype of H. flavipes to decide under which name H. flavipes should be listed and we keep the synonymy with H. ruficornis , following Townes (1977).

The four specimens of H. ruficornis examined herein are very similar to the lectotype of H. ruficornis from NHMW. Note that the lectotype designation was done by Pschorn-Walcher (1955) by stating that it is a “ type ”, which – according to the ICZN for publications prior to 1999 – is sufficient for a valid lectotype designation. We examined a second specimen, collected on 11 / 09 / 1860, which was examined and listed as a non-type specimen by Pschorn-Walcher (1955) though it bears a hand-written label by Förster and a label “ ruficornis Förster , type ”. It is very similar to the H. ruficornis lectotype; however, the fore wings are damaged and we cannot measure its pterostigma index value. Buffington and Copeland (2016) gave some characters to differentiate H. ruficornis from H. striolatus (including pterostigma shape) and differentiation between these species is relatively easy (see also Van Achterberg (2006); and see below for remarks on the identity of H. striolatus and H. meridionalis ). However, the species from which H. ruficornis is most difficult to distinguish is H. coruscus . For a discussion on the characters separating both and results from analysis of CO 1 barcode data, see Fig. 2 and the treatment of H. coruscus above. Note that Buffington and Copeland (2016) did not contribute to the discussion of possible synonymy of H. ruficornis and H. coruscus . They also did not examine the type of H. ruficornis . Additionally, their values given for the petiole index (i. e. petiole length: width) of H. ruficornis (i. e. “ 4 x longer than wide ” in the diagnosis and “> 5-6 x longer than broad ” in the re-description) are not in line with the values of the H. ruficornis specimens examined here, including the holotype (2.7-3.3 (holotype 2.7 )). This might indicate that the central European H. ruficornis , including the primary type, are different from the Afrotropical material examined by Buffington and Copeland (2016).

Figures

Figure 2. Maximum likelihood tree inferred with IQTree and the results of the molecular species delimitations. The first two ranks of ASAP have an identical score. The box colours show the results of the species delimitations that are either congruent (black) or incongruent (red) with our morphological examinations. The dotted lines connecting the outgroup are not to scale. Ultrafast-bootstrap support is shown on the branches.