Chrysura radians

Rosa, Paolo & Lotfalizadeh, Hosseinali, 2013, A new species-group of Chrysura Dahlbom, 1845 (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae), with description of Ch. baiocchii sp. nov. from Iran, Zootaxa 3737 (1) : -

Chrysura radians species group and related subgroups

Diagnosis. Kimsey & Bohart (1991) divided the genus Chrysura Dahlbom, 1845 into five species groups. The Chrysura radians group (ex pustulosa group by Linsenmaier 1959) is the largest one, including 48 species, of which 38 from the Palaearctic. It is characterized by F-II-V asymmetrical in males; clypeal apex at most gentle concave; head and thorax green to blue; metanotum often somewhat bulging or protruding; gonocoxa sometimes emarginate apically; long malar spaces (more than 2 MOD), with exception of the species belonging to the varicornis subgroup. Within the radians group, Kimsey & Bohart (1991) proposed three subgroups: radians s. str., varicornis and genalis .

Chrysura radians s. str. subgroup includes species with sterna mostly bright coppery-red and with malar spaces longer than 2 MOD.

Chrysura varicornis subgroup includes species with short malar spaces (less than 2 MOD), red terga and greenish to blue sterna; some species with few reddish flagellomeres in males, rarely, in females; T-III often apically deflected and few species with erect pale pubescence on vertex.

Chrysura genalis subgroup includes species with the entire body blue to green including terga and sterna; the only exception being Ch. ottomana (Mocsáry, 1889) , which has red terga; the malar space is more than 2 MOD. It includes four Palaearctic species: Ch. genalis (Mocsáry in Radoszkowski, 1889) (= Ch. smaragdulus Semenov, 1967 ), Ch. kashmirensis (Nurse, 1902) , Ch. foetiana (Semenov, 1967) , and Ch. ottomana (Mocsáry, 1889) . We do not see any reason to separate the Ch. genalis subgroup from the Ch. radians s. str. subgroup. Neither internal nor external morphological valid characteristics exist, while the only difference is given by the blue colour of some species. Indeed the general habitus (including the face and the malar spaces, see Fig. 47 in Rosa 2006), the structure of the genital capsula and the shape of the internal urites of the telescopic ovipositor are basically identical within the Ch. radians s. str. subgroup and the Ch. genalis subgroup ( Figs 6 , 8, 9, 10 ). Furthermore, Linsenmaier even downgrades Ch. genalis to subspecies of radians (Linsenmaier 1968: 47, under the synonym Ch. pustulosa, 1987: 145 , 1997: 269), because of the similarity between the two taxa.

The most common species within the green subgroup of species is Chrysura genalis (Mocsáry) ( Figs 11–14 ). It is quite common from Turkey to Turkmenistan. Radoszkowski (1877: 13) described Chrysis foveata (nec foveata Dahlbom, 1845 ) on some syntypes (at least 1 ♂ and 1 ♀ collected at Maracand [currently Samarkand, Uzbekistan] and in the Sarafschan valley). Later Mocsáry (in Radoszkowski 1889) gave the replacement name Ch. genalis . In the same paper, Radoszkowski (1889: 18; figs 35a, 35b) drawn some precise line-drawings of the genital capsula of the male syntype housed in his collection. Kimsey and Bohart (1991: 490) listed the holotype female of Ch. genalis (!) in Moscow. We examined both syntypes male and female in Krakow (PAN) in the Radoszkowski collection (syntype male Figs 11–14 ). Linsenmaier (1959: 81) firstly considered C. genalis as a valid species in the genus Chrysis (Chrysogona) , but in the following revision (Linsenmaier 1968: 47) considered Ch. genalis as a subspecies of Ch. radians (Harris, 1776) . Semenov (1967) described two similar species: Ch. foetiana and Ch. smaragdulus . The latter was placed in synonymy with C. genalis by Kimsey and Bohart (1991: 490). Types of both species are conserved in ZIN (boxes n° 41 and 42).

The examination of the material housed in the Linsenmaier collection (NML) revealed that Linsenmaier misinterpreted some specimens and identified males of Ch. foetiana as Ch. genalis . He dissected the genital capsula of Ch. foetiana , which is similar to Ch. radians , and therefore he considered Ch. genalis as a subspecies of Ch. radians . We include some SEM pictures of the genital capsula of Ch. genalis ( Fig. 8 ), Ch. radians ( Fig. 9 ), and Ch. foetiana ( Fig. 10 ). These pictures should facilitate a future correct identification of the taxa.

During the study of the Iranian material, we examined two Iranian males related to Ch. foetiana (Semenov) . The specimen collected in the southern part of Iran ( Fârs Prov., Dasht-e-Arzhan) looks different from the one collected in the northern part (Kurdistan Prov., 15 km N Kamyaran). However, after the examination of more material from adjacent countries in various collections, it is clear that a number of sister species are included under the name Ch. genalis and a revision of this (sub)group is needed.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Chrysura genalis (Mocsáry), internal sterna and terga.

FIGURES 7 – 10. 7. Chrysura baiocchii sp. nov., T-V; 8. Ch. genalis (Mocsáry), genital capsula; 9. Ch. foetiana (Semenov), genital capsula; 10. Ch. radians (Harris), genital capsula.

FIGURES 11 – 14. Chrysura foveata (Radoszkowski), syntype. 11. Habitus in lateral view, 12. Head in frontal view, 13. Mesosoma in dorsal view, 14. Metasoma in dorsal view.