Aethecerus foveolatus Gregor, 1940

Rousse, Pascal, van Noort, Simon & Diller, E., 2013, Revision of the Afrotropical Phaeogenini (Ichneumonidae, Ichneumoninae), with description of a new genus and twelve new species, ZooKeys 354, pp. 1-85 : 81

Aethecerus foveolatus Gregor, 1940 Figs 48-49

Material examined.

1 male: San Thomé [Sao Tome and Principe], J. Ghesquière 1922 (MRAC).

Diagnosis

( Valemberg 1988). Female: head and mesosoma black; antenna dark testaceous, basally lighter, sometimes with a weak median pale ring; legs mostly yellow with coxae black; tergites 1-4 reddish, following tergites dark testaceous; head strongly transverse, scape not distinctly enlarged; entire head deeply, regularly and sparsely to moderately densely punctate but frons medially smooth; antenna with 21-22 flagellomeres; mesosoma sparsely to densely punctate; notaulus weak; propodeal carination strong and complete, area superomedia subquadrate to twice longer than wide, area petiolaris concave and transversely striate; tergite 1 apically striate, following tergites rugose punctate. Male: scape stongly swollen basally; antenna slenderer with 24 flagellomeres; tergite 1 black, tergites 2-4 reddish and mid–longitudinally infuscate; otherwise similar to female. B 6.3; A 3.8; F 4.1; HdWi 2.0; HfWi 1.3; Ci 2.7; Mi 0.5; Di 2.2; IOi 1.7; OOi 1.9; Fli13.3; Fli231.4; Fli231.1 (measured on the MRAC male specimen).

Distribution.

France, Norway, Poland, Slovakia,Czech Republic, Spain. Sao Tome and Principe? (cf. comments).

Comments.

A single male specimen of this species was found in MRAC collections. The island of Sao Tome and Principe being a former Portugese colony, we first suspected that the presence of Aethecerus foveolatus there was an accidental introduction. The label on the specimen unfortunately lacks further details about the collection locality, particularly we do not know whether or not it was collected in an anthropogenic habitat. Additionally, there are some other examples in MRAC collections of Hymenoptera labelled as collected in Sao Tome, but which are actually from Madagascar or even Belgium (A. Pauly, pers. comm.). The presence, accidental or not, of Aethecerus foveolatus in Sao Tome or even in the Afrotropical Region is highly doubtful. We, however, decided to keep the present description and illustrations in the publication because it provides useful and mostly original information for the identification of this widespread European species.