Xorides sepulchralis (Holmgren, 1860)

Verheyde, Fons, Hoekstra, Paul, Libert, Pierre-Nicolas, Meijer, Hilco, Ketelaere, Augustijn De, Vandaudenard, Thibaud, Belgers, Dick & Brosens, Edwin, 1880, Two hundred and five ichneumonid wasps reported for the first time in Belgium and the Netherlands (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Belgian Journal of Entomology 122, pp. 1-142 : 131-132

Xorides sepulchralis (Holmgren, 1860)

Although it is not hard to recognise, this species has been rather poorly described in recent literature (descriptions can be found in CLÉMENT, 1938 and KASPARYAN, 1981b). X. sepulchralis is another large species which can reach up to 20 mm. Except for the first tergites (which are red), the species is predominantly black. Both the females and the males have white hind tarsi and white apical hands on all tibiae. Their pterostigma is clearly bicoloured, much like the abovementioned X. csikii (basally white, apically black). Their frontal orbits are white. It has more or less the same habitat as X. alpestris and some other Xorides spp. ; dead or wounded (older) hardwood trees on forest borders. They are often found near their hosts on stems of these trees. First report for Belgium and the Netherlands.

MATERIAL EXAMINED:

BELGIUM: • 1 ♀; Oudenaarde, Bos t’Ename (OVL) ; 50°50’40”N 3°38’16”E; IV.2014; Bos t’Ename leg.; coll. PNL; malaise trap; P.-N. Libert det. (ObsID: 134419357). • 1 ♀; Antwerpen, Sint-Annabos (AN); 51°14’06”N 4°22’15”E; 14/v/2018; R. Hendrickx leg.; field observation; F. Verheyde det. (ObsID: 156661447). • 1 ♀; Rillaar (VB); 50°58’40”N 4°54’06”E; 9/vi/2019; E. Van Dyck leg.; field observation; F. Verheyde det. (ObsID: 174061714). • 1 ♀; Deftinge (OVL); 50°46’58”N 3°50’11”E; 25/vii/2019; P. Vdv & A. Vl leg.; field observation; F. Verheyde det. (ObsID: 176960530). • 1 ♂; Beernem, Bulskampveld - Heideveld-Bornebeek (WVL); 51°07’07”N 3°17’24”E; 2/v/2020; A. De Ketelaere leg.; coll. ADK; field observation on Fagus sylvatica ; W. Pénigot, A. De Ketelaere & F. Verheyde det. (ObsID: 190219081).

THE NETHERLANDS: • 1 ♀; Roerdalen , Nationaal Park de Meinweg (LIN); 51°09’39”N 6°08’42”E; 26/iv/2019; W. Vergoossen leg.; field observation; F. Verheyde det. (ObsID: 171194601) . • 1 ♀; Liessel , Deurnse Peel (NB); 51°24’32”N 5°52’09”E; 1/vii/2019; J. Slaats leg.; field observation; F. Verheyde det. (ObsID: 175543067) .

Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been the same without the help of many experts across the world. It is an absolute pleasure and greatly motivating for junior researchers or ‘amateurs’ to know there are specialists available who are able to help with the information and identification in the complex world of Ichneumonidae , where reference material is often scarce and literature hard to find. Without exception these experts were kind and hopefully they will be lifelong correspondents. One day, we hope to return the favour. Many, many thanks to William Pénigot ( Anomaloninae, Banchinae and Ichneumoninae ), Martin Schwarz ( Cryptinae and Phygadeuontinae ), Oleksandr Varga ( Pimplinae, Poemeninae and Xoridinae ), Gavin Broad ( Ctenopelmatinae and Ophioninae ), Andrei Humala ( Orthocentrinae ) and Geir Ørsnes ( Ichneumoninae ) for all their efforts.

We are also grateful for the work, information and some identifications of Lennart Bendixen, Andrew Bennett, Jaswinder Boparai, Erich Diller, Anthony Galsworthy, Klaus Horstmann, Michael James, Anna Nuzhna, Niklas Johansson, Dmitriy Kasparyan, Andrey Khalaim, Seraina Klopfstein, Jonas Lutz, Alf Tore Mjøs, Ika Österblad, Matthias Riedel, Thierry Robert, Mark Shaw, Malcolm Storey, Camille Thirion, Joël Valemberg, Gergely Várkonyi and Kees Zwakhals.

As stated in the introduction, many species could be integrated through projects. We want to express our gratitude to Theo Zeegers from EIS Kenniscentrum Insecten (trapping project in the Netherlands, Soesterberg), Dries Bonte and Ruben Van De Walle from the University of Ghent (ENDURE-project) and Wouter Dekoninck of RBINS (trapping project in Belgium, heathlands of Bruges) who is also thanked for his helpfulness and remarks in general in order to complete this paper. Arnout Zwaenepoel and Sytske de Waart are acknowledged for the integration of species from their (unfinished) catching projects. Koenraad Bracke, Hans De Blauwe, Wim Declercq, Chantal Deschepper, Samuel De Rycke, Tom Kruize, Anne Ronse, Rudy Soethof and Nobby Thys are thanked for letting us take a look at their personal collections and/or for sending specimens.

We are indebted to Theo Peeters for giving feedback on the historical introduction of the manuscript. We also want to thank photographers Bart Minnebo and Rik Delhem, who received several specimens to make great pictures of.

Finally, we wish to thank the reviewers of this paper for giving feedback and all remaining observers and photographers involved on the citizen science portals and/or in the making of this paper. Without observations no paper would have been written, without pictures this paper would have been even longer.