Euplectrus nigriceps Ferriere revised status

Hansson, Christer & Schmidt, Stefan, 2018, Revision of the European species of Euplectrus Westwood (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae), with a key to European species of Euplectrini, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 67, pp. 1-35 : 20

Euplectrus nigriceps Ferriere revised status

Figures 42-46

Euplectrus nigriceps Ferrière, 1941:42. Holotype female in NHM, examined. Synonymized with E. platyhypenae Howard by Bouček and Graham (1978).

Material

(1♀). Sweden: Öland, Ismantorp, 56°44'45.8N, 16°38'29.0E, 30.vi.2014, C. Hansson (MZLU) .

Diagnosis.

Head including clypeal area completely black (Figs 44 , 45 ); midlobe of mesoscutum with a complete median carina (Figs 43 , 46 ); scutellum shiny, with very weak reticulation (Figs 43 , 46 ).

Hosts.

Unknown.

Distribution.

Sweden (new record). This is the only geographical record for the species as the type material did not have information about collecting locality.

Remarks.

Euplectrus nigriceps was described from two females and one male that stood together with British material of E. bicolor in NHM, but all three specimens lacked locality information ( Ferrière 1941). In spite of this lack of information E. nigriceps was regarded as European by Ferrière. Graham (1963) included E. nigriceps in an addition to the British species of the Eulophidae , but because of the lack of information on the type specimens he expressed doubts about the record. Later Bouček and Graham (1978) synonymised E. nigriceps with E. platyhypenae , a species found in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions ( Hansson et al. 2015). These two species are very similar, e.g. through the completely dark head, complete median carina on midlobe of mesoscutum, and the shiny scutellum with very weak reticulation. But they also differ. The female gaster is different: in E. platyhypenae the gaster is pale with narrow dark lateral margins (Fig. 47 ), but in E. nigriceps it is dark brown in posterior ½, in anterior ½ pale with wide dark lateral margins (Fig. 46 ).

Genetic data.

The single genetically examined specimen of E. nigriceps (BC- ZSM-HYM-29751-A01) has a distance of 11.4% to the next neighbour species, E. bicolor .

Figures

Figures 42 - 47. Euplectrus spp.: 42 - 46 E. nigriceps Ferriere, female 42 - 44 non-type specimens from Sweden 42 habitus lateral 43 thoracic dorsum 44 head frontal 45 - 46 holotype 45 head frontal 46 habitus dorsal 47 E. platyhypenae Howard, gaster dorsal, female specimen from Costa Rica.