Hyposoter coxator ( Thomson, 1887 )

Galsworthy, Anthony, Shaw, Mark R. & Haraldseide, Håkon, 2023, A key to European species of Hyposoter Förster, 1869 (Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae) with descriptions of 18 new species, and notes on all included species, Zootaxa 5290 (1), pp. 1-73 : 39

Hyposoter coxator ( Thomson, 1887)

Anilasta coxator Thomson, 1887 ; syntypes ♀ in MZLU, examined by Horstmann.

Fitton (1982) recorded 2 syntypes; according to Horstmann’s notes the first of these was chosen by him (Horstmann) as a lectotype, though this was, so far as we can discover, never published. We refrain from designating this specimen formally as lectotype, since we have not ourselves seen it.

The species is one of only two with an all-black hind body and red hind coxae. The other, H. ruficoxator sp. nov., is easily distinguished by the different colouration of the hind tibia and tarsus, as in the key.

A single female from West Sussex in the NHMUK collection is almost identical in build and sculpture to this species, but has the metasoma from tergite three onwards orange with the tergites darkened only in the centre. This may be an aberrant form of coxator , or possibly a separate species.

Hyposoter coxator has been reared from Eilema griseola (Ḩbner) ( Lepidoptera , Erebidae , Arctiinae) ( Shaw et al. 2016). A further male in NMS was reared from Eilema lurideola (Zincken) by L. Wirooks in Germany. The first author has also taken it regularly in the UK together with E. griseola in a Malaise trap. The syntypes are from Sweden and Germany. We have seen specimens only from the UK, Germany and Sweden, but there are records of uncertain authenticity in the literature from most countries in the northern half of the Western Palaearctic.