Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806

Rosa, Paolo & Xu, Zai-fu, 2015, Annotated type catalogue of the Chrysididae (Insecta, Hymenoptera) deposited in the collection of Maximilian Spinola (1780 - 1857), Turin, ZooKeys 471, pp. 1-96 : 55-57

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806 Plate 47

Chrysis bicolor : Lepeletier 1806: 127.

Label

[♀]: Chrysis bicolor , Lepel. 127; Europa P. / 6288.

Material.

Neotype (here designated) ♀. France Var St. Laurent d. Verdon [Saint-Laurent-du-Verdon, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, France] 23.6.74 Coll. Linsenmaier / [leg.] Perraudin / Chrysis L. bicolor ♀ Lep. det. Linsenmaier 1998 / ex Doubletten LM collection / NML_ENT GBIF_Chr00020564 / Neotypus Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806 P. Rosa des. 2013.

Remarks.

Morgan (1984: 9) designated the lectotype of Chrysis bicolor in MNHN based on a male without a metasoma, writing: "sufficient characters being present on the thorax and head to fix its identity". According to du Buysson (1899) there are no types of Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806 in the Lepeletier collection in MNHN. We were able to examine the presumed type series studied by Morgan. The specimen selected as lectotype was previously labelled as "Type" by a former curator, but it must be excluded from the type series, because Lepeletier placed the specimens under the name Chrysis humeralis , a species never described. The specimens identified by Lepeletier as Chrysis humeralis can be found in the catalogue of du Buysson (1898: 564) in synonymy of Chrysis succincta var. bicolor . This series of three specimens includes two different species. One specimen, bearing the name humeralis , is a male of Chrysis gribodoi Abeille; a second specimen is a female of Chrysis illigeri Wesmael and bears the label "no type status det. Morgan 1981"; the third specimen was selected by Morgan as the male lectotype of bicolor . According to a label pinned by Niehuis in 1998, the specimen selected by Morgan is a female and not a male. Either way, this specimen does not match the current interpretation of the species and belongs to Chrysis illigeri Wesmael, 1839 (= Chrysis helleni Linsenmaier, 1959 in Morgan’s keys). There is no evidence to show that the selected specimen is a syntype. Lepeletier (1806) very likely described Chrysis bicolor based on a single specimen (" Mâle. Je ne sais de quell pays elle est."), which must be considered as a holotype by monotypy. Du Buysson (1809, 1899) did not include it in the type series. Since the specimen designated by Morgan as lectotype had been identified by Lepeletier as Chrysis humeralis , and not Chrysis bicolor , and as this specimens does not correspond to the desciption of Chrysis bicolor given by Lepeletier, we do not consider it as syntype and therefore as a lectotype (Art. 74.2 of the Code).

Since many authors do not separate Chrysis bicolor from Chrysis illigeri (e.g. Kimsey and Bohart 1991: 389; Kunz 1994: 104, etc.), we think that a neotype designation of Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier is needed. Moreover, the taxonomic position of the species belonging to the Chrysis succincta group is not clear. For example, Kimsey and Bohart (1991) placed Chrysis illigeri in synonymy of Chrysis bicolor and considered Chrysis helleni Linsenmaier as a valid species. But Linsenmaier himself ( 1997a) placed Chrysis helleni in synonymy with Chrysis illigeri .

We designate a neotype of Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806 using a specimen housed in the Linsenmaier collection at NMLS. It is a female and it bears the following labels: Chrysis bicolor : France Var St. Laurent d. Verdon [Saint-Laurent-du-Verdon, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, France] 23.6.74 Coll. Linsenmaier / [leg.] Perraudin / Chrysis L. bicolor ♀ Lep. det. Linsenmaier 1998 / ex Doubletten LM collection / NML_ENT GBIF_Chr00020564 / Neotypus Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806 P. Rosa des. 2013 (Plate 46).

The neotype matches the modern interpretation of the species according to Linsenmaier (1959: 113, figs. 350, 502, 503; 1997b: 90, fig. 66). Chrysis bicolor can be separated from the similar Chrysis illigeri by the different shapes of the black spots on the second sternite, the lengths of the malar space, and the shapes of the metanotum in lateral view, as well as various other characters.

Current status.

Chrysis bicolor Lepeletier, 1806.