Metaclisis montagnei Maneval, 1936a : 45

Notton, David G., 2010, A catalogue of the types of Platygastridae (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea) at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, with brief notes on the history of the collection, Zootaxa 2358, pp. 1-24 : 10

Metaclisis montagnei Maneval, 1936a: 45 , figs 1–2, 3a–b, 3e–g.

Current status. Metaclisis montagnei

Holotype Ƥ, France, Mont Mézenc; paratypes (=‘paraholotypes’) Ƥ; 2 3, France, Haute–Loire, Chambon– sur–Lignon (all MNHN). Holotype by original designation.

Labels. Mt. Mézenc/ 24–8–33 / H.Maneval; Metaclisis Ƥ/ montagnei / Maneval; Holotype Ƥ [holotype Ƥ].

Remarks. The holotype and three paratypes (=‘paraholotypes’) were originally in the collection of Maneval (Maneval 1936a), but subsequently came to the MNHN ( Vlug 1995). The holotype is card-mounted on its venter, is entire and clean. A second specimen labelled by Maneval as a holotype, one of three specimens from Chambon–sur–Lignon, is mislabelled and is actually a paratype. The female paratype from Chambon–sur–Lignon has the collection date ’ 15–6–33 ’ although the original description says it was collected on ’ 18–v–1933 ’ this is most probably an error on Maneval’s part because the label is small and smudged, so this specimen should not be excluded from the type series. Four other specimens in the MNHN labelled by Maneval as Metaclisis montagnei are not types as they were collected at Mont Ventoux. The synonymy of this species is not clear at present, it may ( Kozlov 1978) or may not ( Vlug 1995) be conspecific with M. areolatus (Haliday, 1835) , so for now, it is kept separate. For future revisers it is worth noting that the type series of M. montagnei is mixed, as the holotype and paratype females differ in details of the ovipositor valves, antenna and apical metasomal sternites and surely belong to different species. Maneval (1936a) noted that, unlike the holotype, the paratype female had ‘Les valves … ni écartées, ni relevées…’. Further examination of the specimens during this study showed that the holotype female of M. montagnei has more transverse antennal club segments and more elongated apical metasomal tergites, as in Maneval’s drawings (figs 1, 3a, b & g) which are all made from the holotype, whereas the paratype female has a more elongated antennal club and less elongated apical metasomal tergites.