Conostigmus crawfordi ( Mann, 1920 )

Trietsch, Carolyn, Mikó, István, Ezray, Briana & Deans, Andrew R., 2020, A Taxonomic Revision of Nearctic Conostigmus (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea: Megaspilidae), Zootaxa 4792 (1), pp. 1-155 : 35-36

Conostigmus crawfordi ( Mann, 1920)

Fig. 20

Species Comments and History. Mann (1920) described Megaspilus crawfordi from two female specimens collected from a nest of Formica exsectoides Forel, 1886 in Virginia. Muesebeck and Walkley (1951) later transferred the species to the genus Conostigmus . The male of the species is unknown, but the female holotype and paratype specimens are present at the USNM in good condition. Both are point mounted with the ants Mann collected them with.

The female holotype exhibits the following combination of characters: brachypterous; facial pit present; occipital carinae complete; postocellar carina present; preoccipital furrow present and crenulate, reaching the postocellar carina; axillular carinae absent; and sternaulus present and elongate, exceeding 3/4 of the mesopleuron length at the level of the sternaulus.

Mann (1920) noted that the most closely related species to C. crawfordi is C. canadensis . While they have several characters in common (brachypterous, sternaulus present and elongate, facial pit present, postocellar carina present, preoccipital furrow present), C. canadensis has axillular carinae, whereas C. crawfordi lacks this trait.

A more similar species is C. bipunctatus ; in addition to the characters shared between C. crawfordi and C. canadensis , C. bipunctatus also lacks axillular carinae. It is possible that these are the same species. Unfortunately, the type is the only known specimen of C. crawfordi , and we were not able to make a full comparison of the two species during the limited time we had with the type. Because the male of C. crawfordi is unknown, male specimens cannot be compared either. More work is needed before a conclusion can be made. We consider C. crawfordi and C. bipunctatus separate species at this time, though future work could show otherwise. For now, we consider Conostigmus crawfordi as a species inquirenda.

Material Examined. Lectotype female: USA: Virginia: USNMENT01339781 ( USNM) . Paralectotypes (1 female): USA: Virginia : 1 female. USNMENT01339780 ( USNM) .

Figures

FIGURE 20. Conostigmus crawfordi (Mann, 1920) female lectotype (USNMENT01339781). A. Lateral view. B. Dorsal view.