Pamphilius vafer group

The members of this species group are characterized as follows: upper part of head pilose; facial crest in male flattened to moderately swollen, rarely carinate; antennal flagellomere 1 1.0–3.9 × length of flagellomere 2; right mandible bidentate with only basal shoulder to apical tooth; left mandible tridentate with low middle tooth; wings hyaline; forewing with cell C glabrous or pilose; femora entirely pale (black-marked only in P. nigrifemoratus). Ovipositor sheath appendage various in shape, usually pilose. Male genitalia (e.g., Figs 57g, h, 59g, h, 78g, h, 89h, i): proximal ventral arm of gonostipes normal; apiceps various in shape; valviceps in lateral view rather long, apex directed downward, ventral margin usually more or less concave, without conspicuous dorsoapical process, in dorsal view distinctly swollen laterally at apex.

This is a large species group comprising 36 species in the Holarctic region (Shinohara 2002b, 2003a, 2005; Shinohara & Xiao 2006; Shinohara & Taeger 2007; present work). A total of 19 species are known from the Russian Far East and Korea. Shinohara (2002b) recognized ten subgroups. The Nearctic P. ochreipes group (Shinohara 2002b) has much in common with the P. vafer group and here we treat it as an additional subgroup of the latter.

Here we used 168 sequences of 31 species of ten subgroups ( P. albopictus, P. balteatus, P. heecheonparki, P. norimbergensis, P. ochreipes, P. pallimacula, P. stramineipes, P. togashii, P. vafer and P. varius subgroups) for the COI analysis and 99 sequences of 24 species of seven subgroups ( P. albopictus, P. balteatus, P. heecheonparki, P. stramineipes, P. togashii, P. vafer and P. varius subgroups) in the NaK analysis. In the COI analysis (Figs 15, 149– 151), the P. vafer group, excluding P. kashmirensis Beneš, 1971, and P. norimbergensis, was recovered as monophyletic but with a low UFBoot value of 89%. Pamphilius kashmirensis and P. norimbergensis are little-known species, belonging to but rather isolated in the P. vafer group (Shinohara 2002b); their systematic position should be further studied with more material. In the NaK analysis (Figs 16, 160, 161), where P. kashmirensis and P. norimbergensis were not included, the P. vafer group was recovered as monophyletic with 99% UFBoot support. Within the P. vafer group, monophyly of each subgroup and relationships among the subgroups were not well resolved as detailed under the remarks on each species.

The known host plants of the species of the P. vafer group are Rosaceae ( Cerasus, Sorbus, Rosa, etc.), Betulaceae ( Alnus and Betula), Caprifoliaceae ( Lonicera and Macrodiervilla), Adoxaceae (Viburnum) and Fagaceae (Quercus) .