Sciapteryx byzantina Benson, 1968 *

Liston, Andrew, Prous, Marko & Macek, Jan, 2019, On Bulgarian sawflies, including a new species of Empria (Hymenoptera, Symphyta), Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 66 (1), pp. 85-105 : 99-100

Sciapteryx byzantina Benson, 1968 *

Material.

Burgas: 2♀, 1♂ (DEI-GISHym88755), Primorsko 4 km NW, 20 m, 42.300N, 27.729E, 04.04.2018. 1♂ (DEI-GISHym31834), locality as previous, 10.04.2018 .

Varna: 2♂ (including DEI-GISHym88746), Tsonevo 5 km S, 100 m, 42.982N, 27.451E, 02.04.2018. 2♀, locality as previous, 03.04.2018 . 1♀, locality as previous, 06.04.2018 . 1♀, Goren Chiflik 1 km SW, 40 m, 43.001N, 27.621E, 13.04.2018. 1♀ (DEI-GISHym31835), Dolni Chiflik 2 km SE, 50 m, 42.983N, 27.743E, 13.04.2018.

All specimens were collected from patches of Ranunculus constantinopolitanus (DC.) d’Urv. in damp places, often at woodland edges.

Adults are morphologically similar to S. consobrina (Klug, 1816), and most easily distinguished from that and other Sciapteryx species by the pale parts of fore wing pterostigma, costa, and subcosta (Figs 48 , 49 , 52 , 53 ), as described in the key by Benson (1968). The Bulgarian specimens agree well with the original description of this species ( Benson 1968), except for the following details: body length is 8-9 mm (as given also by Benson), but one male only 7mm; labial and maxillary palps largely pale, but apical palpomeres more or less dark (Fig. 50 ) (Benson wrote only that the labial palps are yellowish white); distal margin of tergum 1 more or less pale, but entirely black in one female (Benson wrote that apical margins of all terga are more or less pale); outer margin of tegula more or less pale, and inside dark (Fig. 51 ) (Benson wrote that the "front half of tegula" is pale).

The COI barcode region of DEI-GISHym88746 shows a divergence of 5.3% from the closest neighbour, Sciapteryx laeta Konow, 1891 (DEI-GISHym4857).

The host plants of most Sciapteryx species remain unrecorded, but because at least S. costalis and S. consobrina are known to use Ranunculus species as hosts ( Lorenz and Kraus 1957; Beneš 1960), we speculate that R. constantinopolitanus is the larval host of S. byzantina .

Sciapteryx byzantina was previously known only from the type specimens, collected in European Turkey near Istanbul, and at Rize in north-eastern Turkey (Anatolia) ( Benson 1968) .

Figures

Figures 48 - 53. Sciapteryx byzantina. 48, 49 female DEI-GISHym 31835 habitus; 50 head. 51 Male DEI-GISHym 31834 thorax; 52, 53 habitus.