Conostigmus integriceps ( Kieffer, 1906 )

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 : 49

Conostigmus integriceps ( Kieffer, 1906)

Species Comments and History. Kieffer (1906) described this species from a female specimen or specimens collected from San Mateo, California, with the male unknown. Kieffer later transferred the species to the genus Conostigmus (1909) .

According to Kieffer (1906), the female of this species was macropterous and had a black body with dark brown antennae and yellowish legs. Kieffer (1906) distinguished this species from the female of C. nevadensis in that it has “Scheitel ohne Längsfurche” (pg. 258), which we interpret as the absence of the postocellar carina, and ”Stirueindruck nicht bis zur Hälfte der Augen reichend” (pg. 258), which could indicate either a short preoccipital furrow (not reaching the ocellar triangle) or a short facial sulcus (not reaching half the length of the compound eye). Kieffer (1914) repeats these characters in the description, and in the key to species distinguishes it from the female of C. schwarzi by the “Das 2. Antennenglied gelraun, länger als das 3., scutellum fein lederartig” (pg. 178).

The characters given in Kieffer’s description could apply to several different species of Conostigmus , and the location of Kieffer’s type specimen or specimen series is unknown. We consider Conostigmus integriceps as a species inquirenda.