Dicroscelio fuscus (Kieffer) Lahey & Musetti & Masner & Johnson, 2021

Lahey, Zachary, Musetti, Luciana, Masner, Lubomir & Johnson, Norman F., 2021, Revision of Phoenoteleia Kieffer (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae, Scelioninae), Journal of Hymenoptera Research 87, pp. 575-611 : 575

Dicroscelio fuscus (Kieffer) comb. nov.

Plagioscelio fuscus Kieffer, 1916: 187 (original description); Kieffer, 1926: 356, 357 (description, figured, keyed); Baltazar, 1966: 176 (cataloged, distribution).

Phoenoteleia fusca (Kieffer): Johnson, 1992: 461 (cataloged).

Comments.

Kieffer (1916) described Plagioscelio fuscus (= Phoenoteleia fusca ) for a single male collected in the Philippines. As far as we know, the type was never examined by anyone other than Kieffer and the specimen was never deposited in MNHN, the primary repository of his Hymenopteran type material. The single line drawing of the metasoma ( Kieffer 1926; Suppl. material 2) and certain morphological characters mentioned in the original description shed doubt on the placement of this species within Phoenoteleia . Instead, we propose that this species is more appropriately placed within Dicroscelio Kieffer, a cosmopolitan genus well represented in Southeast Asia ( Kieffer 1913; Masner 1976; Yoder et al. 2009). Kieffer’s drawing of the metasoma (incorrectly labeled as female!) conforms with that of a Dicroscelio species from New Caledonia (OSUC 185966; Suppl. material 2). Similarly, his description of the wing venation, structure of the metanotum, and length of the metabasitarsus is indicative of certain members of Dicroscelio and excludes Phoenoteleia as a potential option for the placement of this species. It is important to note that we are not identifying this Dicroscelio specimen as P. fusca . We are simply making a comparison between this specimen and the description of P. fusca given by Kieffer (1916).

Species description