Hemiteles cingulatorius Morley 1912

Broad, Gavin R., 2021, Taxonomic changes in Ichneumonoidea (Hymenoptera), and notes on certain type specimens, Zootaxa 4941 (4), pp. 511-541 : 528-529

15. Hemiteles cingulatorius Morley 1912

( Fig. 14 )

Current combination. Tolonus cingulatorius ( Morley 1912) new combination ( Ichneumonidae : Cryptinae ).

Material examined. Hemiteles cingulatorius Morley 1912 ♀ lectotype, here designated, NHMUK, Seychelles, Praslin, according to Morley (1912), Côtes d’Or Estate, end of Nov. 1908: ‘48’; ‘Praslin ’08. Seychelles Exp.’; ‘Type C.M.’; ‘ Seychelles Islands. Pres. by Committee of the Percy Sladen Trust Fund. 1911-22.’; ‘Named by Claude Morley Hemiteles cingulatorius Morl. vii 1911 ’; ‘B.M.Type Hym. 3b391’; ‘ NHMUK 010634939’; 1♀ ( NHMUK 010634940), 2♂ ( NHMUK 010634941, NHMUK 010634942) paralectotypes, Seychelles, Silhouette (‘low coconut-planted country near the coast at Pointe Etienne, 17th Sept. 1908, etc.; Mare aux Cochons marshy plateau and adjacent jungle, Aug. and Sept. 1908 ’: Morley 1912).

Comments. Morley (1912) described Hemiteles cingulatorius from the Seychelles (Praslin and Silhouette Islands), and the species has been ignored since the original description. Hemiteles Gravenhorst was a genus name used for many cryptines and phygadeuontines (in the modern sense; Santos 2017) with the fore wing areolet open. Now, Hemiteles is restricted to a small genus of Phygadeuontinae , parasitoids of spider egg sacs (e.g., Schwarz & Shaw 2000). Morley (1912) described a type series of 12 females and nine males, but only four of this apparently conspecific syntype series seem to be in NHMUK now; I have designated the female that Morley labelled as ‘type’ (NHMUK010634939) as lectotype ( Fig. 14 ) in case the series are found not to be conspecific.

Hemiteles cingulatorius clearly belongs to the subfamily Cryptinae (sensu Santos 2017) , and the Goryphus genus group. The nearest fit is the genus Tolonus Seyrig. In Townes’s (1970) key to genera of Cryptinae (as Gelinae), H. cingulatorius runs to Tolonus as the first tergite has anterior lateral teeth; the epomia is weak and diverges abruptly from the collar; and the scutellum has lateral carinae only very anteriorly. Additional characters supporting its placement in Tolonus are the fine longitudinal carina on the frons and the fore wing postnervulus intercepted above the middle (CU shorter than 2 cu-a). Five of the described species of Tolonus are known from Madagascar and the sixth from Senegal or Gambia ( Seyrig 1952; Townes & Townes 1973); Townes (1970) mentions three undescribed species from Africa. Tolonus cingulatorius comb. nov. is a little smaller than the other described species (fore wing length 4 mm, in other species 5-7 mm), although there is quite some variation between Tolonus species and the goryphine fauna of the Afrotropical and Malagasy regions needs revision.

Figures

FIGURE 14. Hemiteles cingulatorius Morley 1912 lectotype female (NHMUK010634939), dorsal habitus (above) and head to second metasomal segment, dorsal (below), card mount and labels inset; scale bar = 2 mm.