Perilampus auratus (Panzer, 1798)

Fig. 3

Cynips auratus Panzer, 1798: table 1.

Diagnosis.

Head and pronotum bronze gold, with slight green reflections; mesosoma blue green; metasoma green, with blue and bronze reflections; female flagellum orange, clava slightly darker. Body size: 1.75-5.00 mm. Head shape in frontal view (Fig. 3A, B), much wider than high. Head in lateral view not unusually long, without distinct sulcus separating posterior eye margin from temples. Clypeal margin (Fig. 3A, B) slightly emarginate to truncate. Supraclypeal area (Fig. 3A, B) slightly transverse (less than 1.5 × as wide as high), sides not defined; in male without oval lateral impressions. Malar sulcus versus length of anterior margin of malar depression longer in female, about equal in male. Frontal keels (Fig. 3A, B) poorly developed. Face between scrobes and eye (Fig. 3A, B) almost smooth. Face between clypeus and eye (Fig. 3A, B) smooth. Lateral ocellus small (OOL at least twice the largest lateral ocellus diameter). Funicular segments in female (Fig. 3A): most segments transverse. Male scape (Fig. 3B) slightly widened distally; ventral pores on less than half scape length. Mesosoma (Fig. 3C) not narrow (less than 1.4 × as long as wide). Mesoscutum sculpture (Fig. 3C) with smooth median tubercle; interspaces smaller than punctures, smooth. Scutellum hind margin (Fig. 3C) without a double carina, with small more or less bilobed protruding projection. Prepectus (Fig. 3D) wide, dorsal margin longer than pronotal collar; well defined anteriorly (i.e., suture with pronotum very distinct); anterior margin without punctures.

Material examined.

Romania: 2♀♀, 1♂, " Iași county, Iași city, inside apartment, 25.i.2008, M.-D. Mitroiu leg." (MICO) . Turkey: 1♀, 1♂, " Turkey: Ankara, Kavaklidere, 6.viii.1960. 2,700 ’”, "Guichard & Harvey, B.M. 1960-364", " ♀ / ♂ Perilampus Perilampus (Panz.), Z. Bouček det. 1972" (NHMUK) .

Hosts.

Associated with Crabronidae ( Hymenoptera) and Tenthredinidae ( Hymenoptera); presumably a hyperparasitoid.

Distribution.

Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine. New species to Romania and Turkey.

Comments.

This is one of the easiest species to identify, being the only one with a median tubercle on the mesoscutum (Fig. 3C). Moreover, the colour pattern of this species seems unique at least among the European species.