Hyposoter discedens ( Schmiedeknecht, 1909 )

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 : 40-41

Hyposoter discedens ( Schmiedeknecht, 1909)

Anislastus discedens Schmiedeknecht, 1909 : holotype ♀ in TLHR, examined by Horstmann.

The holotype was identified by Oehlke & Townes (1969), and had been examined by Horstmann. We have seen five specimens from Germany in Horstmann’s collection, and a long series from Norway in the third author’s collection.

Dr M.Riedel, who is currently investigating type material of Olesicampe in the Holmgren and Thomson collections, has informed us (pers. comm.) that the three specimens standing under Holocremna sinuata Thomson, 1887 in the Thomson collection in Lund are identical to specimens of Hyposoter discedens from Germany. One of these specimens had been designated as the lectotype of sinuata by Aubert (1966), but Fitton (1982) pointed out that this designation was invalid because the specimen in question came from the wrong locality. Since none of the three specimens comes from the correct locality, he regarded the type material as lost, but placed the taxon in Olesicampe on the basis of the three non-type specimens. There can be no absolute certainty that the three specimens are in fact conspecific with the lost type specimen(s), and given this element of doubt we are reluctant to create a neotype in order to fix this name, which would then have priority over discedens . We therefore think it preferable, in the interest of nomenclatural stability, to regard sinuata as a nomen dubium, lacking any identifiable type material, and to retain discedens as the senior name of this taxon. Since the morphology fits the Townesian definition of Hyposoter best, we leave this species for the moment in Hyposoter rather than Olesicampe , and have included it in the key, but preliminary barcode analysis by the third author (see introduction) consistently places the species among Olesicampe species, and it may well prove to fit there once the host is known.

The species is well defined by the strong incision in the centre of the prepectal carina, and by the junction of the genal and hypostomal carinae close to the base of the mandible. It is quite striking in coloration: the hind tibia is bright orange, with a strong yellow fleck proximally, and usually dark subproximal and distal rings. The central tergites are bright orange laterally, and sometimes this extends to the apex of the metasoma, but the centres of the tergites are black to a greater or lesser extent, giving the effect of a dark stripe down the centre of the metasoma.

The biology is unknown. The Thomson material referred to above is from Sweden. In addition to Horstmann’s material from Germany, we have seen one specimen from France in NMS, and a long series of females from Norway. There are records of unknown reliability from many European countries from Finland to Turkey. Records from the UK and Ireland are of very doubtful reliability. Specimens from Norway were collected from June to August, most numerously in June.

Two specimens from the third author’s collection were barcoded (BOLD Sample IDs CollHH1209 and 1216).