Iconella albinervis (Tobias, 1964)

Fernandez-Triana, Jose L., Whitfield, James B., Rodriguez, Josephine J., Smith, M. Alex, Janzen, Daniel H., Hallwachs, Winnie D., Hajibabaei, Mehrdad, Burns, John M., Solis, M. Alma, Brown, John, Cardinal, Sophie, Goulet, Henri & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2014, Review of Apantelessensu stricto (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica, with keys to all described species from Mesoamerica, ZooKeys 383, pp. 1-565 : 11-12

3. Iconella albinervis (Tobias, 1964) stat rev.

Apanteles albinervis Tobias, 1964: 221. (Kazakhstan). Secondary homonym of Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904).

Apanteles albinervis Tobias, 1964. Kept as a valid species by Shenefelt (1972: 438) as a result of an invalid replacement name for Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904).

Iconella albinervis (Tobias, 1964). Transferred by Papp (1988: 151).

Apanteles albinervis Tobias, 1964. Transferred by van Achterberg (2003: 27).

Remarks.

The name Apanteles albinervis Tobias, 1964 could be considered a secondary homonym of Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904) [see more explanations below, under the taxonomic treatment of Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904) in the section "Taxonomic treatment of the Apanteles species in Mesoamerica, alphabetically by species-groups"]. However, Papp (1988) transferred the Tobias’ species to Iconella when treating the Palaearctic species under the (then new) reclassification of Microgastrinae proposed by Mason (1981). In a later paper, van Achterberg (2003) rejected Papp’s work and sank several genera of Microgastrinae under Apanteles , with Iconella being one of them. As part of those changes, Apanteles albinervis Tobias, 1964 was reinstated as a valid name - and, if accepted at present, would become a secondary homonym of Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904). However, van Achterberg’s proposal is far from being widely accepted ( Broad et al. 2012; Fernández-Triana 2010). We think that the best approach at present is to consider Iconella as a valid genus - not a junior synonym of Apanteles . Thus, we here transfer Tobias’s species back to Iconella , as done earlier by Papp (1988) - an arrangement also accepted by other workers (e.g., Inanç 1997, Kotenko 2007).

Article 59.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN 1999) regulates the case of "Secondary homonyms not replaced when no longer considered congeneric" and states that "If in a case of secondary homonymy the junior species-group name has not been replaced [Art. 60], and the relevant taxa are no longer considered congeneric, the junior name is not to be rejected, even if one species-group name was originally proposed in the current genus of the other". In accordance with that, the junior name Iconella albinervis (Tobias, 1964) is no longer considered congeneric with the senior name Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904) and thus there is no need for a replacement name for the Tobias species. However, given previous changes in the generic status of this species, it should be kept in mind that, if future studies bring it back into Apanteles , at that moment a replacement name will be needed to avoid a secondary homonym with Apanteles albinervis (Cameron, 1904).