Macrocamptoptera grangeri Soykaı 1961

(Figures 1 – 3)

Macrocamptoptera grangeri Soyka 1961: 87 . Type locality: Toulon, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d ’ Azur, France. Holotype female [NHMW], examined (Triapitsyn 2012).

Herulia sundholmi Hedqvist 1962: 103 – 104 . Type locality: near Tromtö, Förkärla, Blekinge, Sweden. Syn. n. (from previous synonymy with M. metotarsa (Girault, 1905) by Triapitsyn 2012, p. 100).

Camptoptera grangeri (Soyka): Viggiani and Jesu 1988: 1022 (member of the metotarsa [species] group of Camptoptera Foerster).

Camptoptera sp. (member of the metotarsa group): Viggiani and Jesu 1988: 1022 (record of a female from Italy).

Rila bulgarica Donev: Donev 1988: 204 (collection locality in Bulgaria only). Nom. nud.

Rhila bulgarica Donev 1989: 79 – 83 . Type locality: Bodrost (Rila Mountains), Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria. Holotype female [A. Donev private collection, Asenovgrad, Bulgaria], examined (Triapitsyn 2012). Syn. n.

Macrocamptoptera bulgarica (Donev): Huber and Lin 1999: 39 (a likely synonym of M. sundholmi); Triapitsyn 2012: 97 – 98 (key, taxonomic history, type information, redescription, diagnosis, illustrations, distribution, comments: possible synonym of M. grangeri).

Macrocamptoptera sundholmi (Hedqvist): Huber and Lin 1999: 39 (distribution).

Macrocamptoptera grangeri Soyka: Triapitsyn 2012: 97 (key), 99 – 100 (restored status, type information, redescription of the holotype, diagnosis, illustrations).

Macrocamptoptera metotarsa (Girault): Triapitsyn 2012: 100 – 104 in part, specimens from Europe only: synonymy, taxonomic history, redescription of female, description of male, distribution, illustrations); Samková et al. 2020: 208 (distribution).

Herulia sundholmi Hedqvist: Forshage et al. 2016: 130 – 131 (type information, as a synonym of M. metotarsa).

Macrocamptoptera sp .: Samková et al. 2020: 223, fig. 96 (habitus image of a female whose scape is entirely dark brown).

Type material examined

Holotype female of Herulia sundholmi on card [NHMUK], labelled (Figure 1 (b)): ‘ Bl., Förkärla, Tromtö, 29.7.51 coll. A. Sundholm ’ //[red] ‘ HOLOTYPUS Herulia sundholmi sp. n. K.-J. Hequist [sic] det. 1962 ’ //[red circle] ‘ HOLO-TYPE ’ // ‘ B.M. TYPE HYM 5.4697 ’ //[recently added] ‘ Hedqvist col. BMNH (E) 2011 – 27 ’ //[a recently added barcode label] ‘ NHMUK 010748743 ’. The holotype (Figure 1 (a)) is complete, in good condition .

Material examined

Belgium, Walloon Brabant, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Ottignies, P. Dessart: 1 – 8.viii.1981 [1 female, CNC]; 25.v – 4.vi.1983 [1 female, CNC]. Georgia, Kakheti region, Lagodekhi Nature Reserve, Mt. Kudigora, G. Japoshvili, G. Kirkitadze: 41°51 ʹ 09 ” N 46°17 ʹ 16 ” E, 666 m, 15 – 25. viii.2011 [1 female, UCRC UCRC_ENT 00436765, D6042, Figure 2 (a))]; same elevation but 23.iv – 5.v, 5 – 15.v, 15 – 25.v, 25.v – 4.vi, 4 – 14.vi, 15 – 25.vi, 5 – 15.vii.2014 (22 females, CNC, ECAUG); 41°51.351 ʹ N 46°17.564 ʹ E, 847 m, 12 – 23.iv, 5 – 15.vii, 25.viii – 4.ix, 5 – 14.ix (15 females, CNC, ECAUG); 41°52.288 ʹ N 46°18.692 ʹ E, 1351 m, 5 – 14.ix.2014 (1 female, ECAUG); 41°52 ʹ 58 ” N 46°19 ʹ 19 ” E, 1841 m, 5 – 15.viii.2014 [2 females, UCRC (UCRC_ENT 00436767, D6044, Figure 2 (b – d)), UCRC_ENT 00436768]. Slovakia: Banská Bystrica Region, Banská Štiavnica, viii.1959, M. Čapek [1 female, NHMUK] (identified by J. S. Noyes in 1984 as Camptoptera sundholmi (Hedqvist) and then by Z. Bouček in 1986 as M. grangeri). Bratislava Region, Jurský Šúr [Nature Reserve], 48.23°N 17.21°E, 137 m, 31. vii – 4.viii.2008 B. V. Brown, oak forest [1 female, UCRC]. Spain, ‘ El Ventorillo ’, 1 – 9.vii.1988, Garrido [1 female, MNCN] (examined by S. V. Triapitsyn ix.2002 during a visit to Kőszeg, Hungary, where it was at that time on loan to C. Thuróczy).

Redescription

Female (holotypes of M. grangeri and Herulia sundholmi and slide-mounted specimens from Belgium, Georgia and Slovakia). Body (Figures 1 (a), 2(a)) dark brown to black (gaster a little lighter than head, mesosoma, and petiole); radicle yellowish brown, rest of scape entirely dark brown, pedicel brown, flagellum brown to dark brown; legs light brown to brown except femora dark brown and coxae dark brown to black. Head (Figure 3 (d)) a little narrower than mesosoma in dorsal view. Antenna (Figures 1 (c), 2(b), 3(a)) with proportions of scape minus radicle quite variable, 4.4 – 7.1× as long as wide, a little shorter than clava, with faint longitudinal sculpture; pedicel shorter than F1; F2 from about as long as wide to a little longer than wide; F3 the longest funicle segment, 1.2 – 2.0× as long as pedicel; clava 3.3 – 3.7× as long as wide (in lateral view), about as long as, or a little longer than, combined length of F5 – F7. Mesosoma (Figures 2 (c), 3(b)) shorter than metasoma. Fore wing (Figures 2 (d), 3(c)) longer than body, 7.9 – 10.1× as long as wide; disc with a brown tinge almost throughout (particularly with a conspicuous infuscation at apex) except for a more or less hyaline subapical spot, with several incomplete, mostly interrupted rows of microtrichia and a few scattered microtrichia not arranged in rows (most in apical half of wing); the longest marginal seta 1.4 – 2.4× maximum wing width. Hind wing (Figure 3 (c)) 16.9 – 18.9× as long as wide, disc with a slight brown tinge throughout (more conspicuously so apically and with a small, more or less hyaline subapical spot) and mostly asetose except for an incomplete row of small mirotrichia along anterior margin and a complete row of small microtrichia along the posterior margin and a few microtrichia at apex and elsewhere; the longest marginal seta 3.1 – 4.3× maximum wing width. Metasoma (Figures 2 (c), 3(b)) with petiole apparently about as long as wide; ovipositor 0.3 – 0.5× length of gaster and 0.4 – 0.8× length of mesotibia, not exserted. Male unknown.

Diagnosis

Macrocamptoptera grangeri is very similar to M. metotarsa but scape of its female antenna is entirely dark brown (Figures 1 (a,c), 2(a,b), 3(a)) and with a relatively less reticulate, a more longitudinal sculpture whereas that of the bi-coloured scape of female antenna in M. metotarsa with a more conspicuous, cell-like sculpture (Figure 4 (b)). Otherwise, these two species are very difficult to distinguish morphologically, so they can be better separated by the genetic analyses of the COI barcpode and 28s D2 gene regions, as shown below.

Distribution

Western Palaearctic Region: Belgium (Huber and Lin 1999 [as M. sundholmi]; Triapitsyn 2012 [as M. metotarsa]), Bulgaria (Donev 1989 [as Rhila bulgarica]; Triapitsyn 2012 [as M. bulgarica]); Czech Republic (Samková et al. 2020 [as M. metotarsa]), France (Soyka 1961; Triapitsyn 2012), Georgia [new record], Italy (Triapitsyn 2012 [as M. bulgarica]), Slovakia [new record], Spain [new record], and Sweden (Hedqvist 1962 [as Herulia sundholmi]).

Comments

Both other nominal European species, originally described as Herulia sundholmi and Rhila bulgarica, were based on highly variable morphological characters, such as proportions of female antennal segments and fore wing length:width ratios, and thus cannot be separated from the earlier described M. grangeri with any confidence, hence the synonymies. Indeed, two similar (but slightly different morphologically in some of the aforementioned proportions and ratios) specimens from Mt. Kudigora, Lagodekhi Nature Reserve, Georgia listed above, UCRC_ENT 00436765 (D6042, Figure 2 (a)) and UCRC_ENT 00436767 (D6044, Figure 2 (b – d)), were initially identified as two different nominal species using the key in Triapitsyn (2012): the former as M. sundholmi (at that time incorrectly considered to be a synonym of the central and eastern Nearctic species M. metotarsa) and the latter as M. grangeri .