Saphonecrus leleyi Melika and Schwéger, 2015

Lobato-Vila, Irene, Wang, Yiping, Melika, George, Guo, Rui, Ju, Xiaoxue & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2021, A Taxonomic Review of the Gall Wasp Genus Saphonecrus Dalla-Torre and Kieffer and other Oak Cynipid Inquilines (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) from Mainland China, with Updated Keys to Eastern Palaearctic and Oriental Species, Zoological studies (Zool. Stud.) 60 (10), pp. 1-25 : 13

Saphonecrus leleyi Melika and Schwéger, 2015

Saphonecrus leleyi Melika and Schwéger in Schwéger et al. (2015b). Zootaxa 4054(1): 23. Type material: PHMBL.

Material examined (38): Deposited in UB with the following data: West Tianmu Mountain, Lin’an, Hangzhou (Zhejiang), Ex unknown gall, unknown tree, emerged 24.iv.2011, Rui Guo leg. (28); Yuyingzi Village, Luanping (Hebei), Ex unknown gall, unknown tree, emerged 19.x.2015, Rui Guo leg. (18).

Diagnosis: Saphonecrus leleyi belongs to a group of species ( S. chaodongzhui , S. flavitibilis , S. segmentatus , sp. nov. and S. symbioticus ) characterized by the absence of lateral pronotal carina and by having tarsal claws with a basal lobe. Saphonecrus leleyi is grouped with S. symbioticus , both differing from the rest of the species within this group by F1 being at most 1.2x as long as F2 (longer in the rest of species), POL about 2.5x as long as OOL (2.0x or less in the rest of species), malar space 0.5x as long as height of eye (0.6–0.65 in the rest of species) and syntergite posteriorly without punctures (with a small patch of micropunctures in the rest of species). However, S. leleyi differs from S. symbioticus by having frons and vertex alutaceous to coriaceous, with scattered punctures (reticulate in S. symbioticus ), mesoscutum with weak interrupted transversal carinae and mesoscutellum wrinkled (both reticulate to delicately coriaceous in S. symbioticus ), OOL 2.1x as long as diameter of lateral ocellus (1.3 in S. symbioticus ), notauli incomplete (complete in S. symbioticus ) and radial cell of the fore wing 2.8x as long as wide (2.3–2.5 in S. symbioticus ). See also the key to species below.

Distribution: Far Eastern Russia. Primorskij Kraj ( Schwéger et al. 2015b). First record of this species from mainland China (Hebei and Zhejiang Provinces).

Biology: Reared from undescribed bud galls on Q. mongolica Fisch. ex Ledeb. ( Schwéger et al. 2015b) . The hosts of the new material examined here is unknown.