Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1917

Broad, Gavin R., 2021, Taxonomic changes in Ichneumonoidea (Hymenoptera), and notes on certain type specimens, Zootaxa 4941 (4), pp. 511-541 : 536-538

21. Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1917

( Fig. 20 )

Current combination. junior synonym of Aethianoplis excavata (Roman 1910) new synonymy ( Ichneumonidae : Ichneumoninae ); junior homonym of Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1916 (now Seyrighoplites inermis (Morley 1916)) .

Material examined. Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1917 ♂ lectotype, here designated, NHMUK, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Mfongosi : ‘ Mfongosi Zulu L. W E Jones’; ‘Xanthojoppa Cam. (Anisojoppa, Cam) inermis, Morl. sp. nov. TYPE Morley det. x.1916.’; ‘ Claude Morley Collection. B.M. 1952-159.’; ‘ B.M.Type Hym. 3b.2073’; ‘ NHMUK010635181 ’.

Comments. The description of Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1917 was missed by Yu & Horstmann (2006) and by Yu et al. (2016). As Heinrich (1968b) noted, Claude Morley published two descriptions of Xanthojoppa inermis (Morley 1916; 1917), clearly referring to different species. Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1916 was transferred to Seyrighoplites Heinrich , but Heinrich (1968b) could not locate the type depository for X. inermis Morley 1917 and did not interpret the name. Morley (1917) refers to two specimens, female and male, in his description of X. inermis but only the male syntype can be found in NHMUK, type number 3b.2073, which Morley had labelled type (♂). The other specimen referred to by Morley (1917) is a female from East London ( South Africa, Eastern Cape). There is also one female specimen (NHMUK010635210) from Uganda (Mabira Forest) labelled as a ‘gynetype’ by Morley in 1917, which is not referred to in the original description and has no type status. Morley (1917) refers to the female and male without designating a primary type. To stabilise the use of the name, this male is designated as lectotype here. This name had been placed under Aethianoplis excavata (Roman 1910) in NHMUK, presumably by J.F. Perkins. The specimens are indeed conspecific with A. excavata and X. inermis Morley 1917 is a junior synonym. The two specimens (lectotype ♂ and ‘gynetype’ ♀) had been misidentified at some point as Seyrighoplites inermis , which is superficially similar, however, the very sinuous ventral end of the occipital carina, with an excavate gena, together with the complete carina around the scutellum and comparatively small thyridia ( Fig. 20c ) differentiate Aethianoplis Heinrich from Seyrighoplites .

As there are no published host records for the genus Aethianoplis it is also worth recording a specimen in NHMUK (NHMUK010635211) reared in Uganda (Ssese Islands, Lake Victoria) from a nymphalid butterfly, labelled as Precis sesamus , now Precis octavia sesamus (Trimen) ( Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae ), which is pinned alongside the host pupa (NHMUK010635212) ( Fig. 21 ). The A. excavata specimen is labelled as having been collected as a larva, although the labels with the host remains only refer to the pupa, and the relatively long ovipositor with a short hypopygium are more characteristic of pupal parasitoids than larva-pupal in Ichneumoninae .

Figures

FIGURE 20. Xanthojoppa inermis Morley 1917 lectotype male (NHMUK010635181): (a) lateral habitus, labels inset, scale bar = 5mm; (b) dorsal habitus; (c) detail of posterior of mesosoma and anterior of metasoma, dorsal, showing curved carina around scutellum and thyridia (on second metasomal tergite) separated by about a thyridium width.

FIGURE 21. Aethianoplis excavata (Roman 1910) female (NHMUK010635211) (above) with host nymphalid butterfly (Precis octavia sesamus (Trimen)) pupa (below), labels inset; scale bars = 5 mm.