Neolinycus michaelis Heinrich, 1971

Dal Pos, Davide, Heilman, Victoria & Welter-Schultes, Francisco, 2022, Platylabini (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ichneumoninae) of the south-eastern United States: new distributional data, taxonomic notes, illustrated keys, and an annotated catalogue of the genera and species, Journal of Natural History 56, pp. 1869-1938 : 1896-1903

Neolinycus michaelis Heinrich, 1971

( Figures 17–21 )

Neolinycus michaelis Heinrich, 1971: 1025 (descr.); Tereshkin 2009: 1458, 1579 (descr., fig.).

Neolinycus michaelis michaelis Heinrich 1972: 210 (distr., neallotype designation); Heinrich 1977: 280 (descr., distr.); Carlson 1979: 542 (cat., distr., syn.); Yu and Horstmann 1997: 677 (cat.); Schmidt and Schmidt 2011: 86 (cat.); Yu et al. 2016 (cat.).

Neolinycus michaelis georgianus Heinrich, 1972: 210 (descr.); Heinrich 1977: 281 (descr., distr., key); Carlson 1979: 542 (cat., distr., syn.); Yu and Horstmann 1997: 677 (cat.); Schmidt and Schmidt 2011: 86 (cat.); Yu et al. 2016 (cat.). Synonymised under the nominate subspecies by Carlson (1979: 542).

Neolinycus michaelis arkansae Heinrich, 1977: 282 (descr.); Yu and Horstmann 1997: 677 (cat.); Schmidt and Schmidt 2011: 86 (cat.); Yu et al. 2016 (cat.). Hereby regarded as a synonym of the nominate subspecies.

Original type series

Holotype ♀ of L. michaelis michaelis , by original designation ( ZSM); holotype ♀ of L. michaelis georgianus , by original designation ( ZSM); holotype ♂ L. michaelis arkansae , by original designation in ( ZSM); paratype: 1♂ L. michaelis arkansae (ZSM) .

Type locality

United States of America, Mississippi, Lafayette Co ., Water Valley ( L. michaelis michaelis ); Georgia, Monroe Co ., Forsyth ( L. michaelis georgianus ); Arkansas, Garaland Co. ( L. michaelis arkansae ).

Type specimens examined ( Figures 17–19 )

Holotype of L. michaelis michaelis : ‘[White Label] Water Valley/Lafayette Co./Mississ. U.S.A. / 5.–10. VIII 70. // Neolinycus / michaelis ♀ /det. Heinrich Hein. // [Red Type] Holotype // [Pink Label] Zoologische Staatssammlung/München/Type-No.: ZSM-Hym-00443’ (images examined). Holotype of L. michaelis georgianus : ‘[White Label] Forsyth, Monroe Co./ Georgia, U.S.A. / 7.–27. VIII 19 71 [originally 1969, then overwritten “71”]/[White Label] Neolinycus / ♀ michaelis /georgianus /det. Heinrich Hein. // michaelis /georgianus/72 det. G. Heinrich Hei. // [Red Type] Holotype // [Pink Label] Zoologische Staatssammlung/ München/Type-No.: ZSM-Hym-00444’ ( ZSM) (images examined). Holotype L. michaelis arkansae : ‘[White Label] Arkansas, USA /Garland Co./ 12-17. May 72 // [White Lable] Neolinycus / michaelis /arkansae ♂ /det. Heinr. Heinr. //’ [Red Type] Holotype // [Pink Label] Zoologische Staatssammlung/München/Type-No.: ZSM-Hym-00445” ( ZSM) (examined).

Material examined

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, FLORIDA: USA, FL, Alachua Co ., Gainsville , Pierce’s Homestead, S 9-T10S-R18E, Malaise Trap, 01 November 1974, leg . W .H . Pierce , 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 03 November 1973, 1♂ ( FSCA); idem, 09 May 1974 1♀ ( FSCA); Alachua Co ., San Felasco Hammock , Insect Flight Trap, 22 April 1977, leg . G .B. Fairchild & H.V . Weems, 1♀ ( FSCA); Gainsville, Doyle Conner Building , Malaise Trap, 03 September 1973, leg . E . E . Grissell , 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 06 November 1973, 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 24 October 1973, 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 21–25 April 1975, 1♀ ( FSCA); Baker Co ., Glen St. Mary, Rural Yard / Mxd Woods , Malaise trap, 30 November 2006, leg . E . Zoll & S . Fullerton , 1♀ ( UCFC); idem, 16 November 2006, 1♀ ( UCFC); idem, 05 April 2007, 1♂ ( UCFC); Clay Co ., Gold Head State Park, Ravine Hardwoods , 20 March 1995, leg . C . Porter & L . Strange, 19♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA) (wrongly identified as Cyclolabus carolinensis by Porter); idem, 05 May 1995, 1♂ ( FSCA); idem, 07 October 1996, 1♂ ( FSCA); idem, 15February–12 March 1997, 3♂♂ ( FSCA); idem, 15 March–02 April 1997, 3♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 1–15 May 1997, 2♂♂ ( FSCA); idem, June 1997, 2♂♂ ( FSCA); idem, July 1997, 2♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, Ravine-mixed woods, 15 May 1996, 14♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 05–26 April 1996, 7♂♂ ( FSCA); idem, 02 April–15 May 1997, 13♂♂ & 4♀♀ ( FSCA); Collier Co ., Naples, Tr.17, 10 March 1988, leg . Belmont , 11♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 29 June 1987, 5♂♂ ( FSCA); idem, 31 May 1987 2♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 22 July 1987, 3♂♂ & 1♀ ( FSCA); idem, 02 August 1987, 1♂ ( FSCA); idem, 24 May 1987, 5♂♂ ( FSCA); Columbia & Baker Co . Line, Osceola Nat. For., Jct. Rt. 90, Malaise Trap, 29 March–13 April 1977, leg . J .R . Wiley , 1♂ ( FSCA); Gadsen Co ., Quincy , NFREC, 28 July 1989, leg . Gupta, 1♂ ( FSCA); Lake Co ., Green Swamp, W. M. Dist., 08 May 1987, leg . Nigg ., 1♂ ( FSCA); idem, 28 August 1987, 1♀ ( FSCA) ; GEORGIA: Athens, Bot. Garden M.Tr., 05 May 1983, leg . Gupta , 1♂ ( FSCA); idem, 05 June1983, leg . Gupta , 2♂♂ ( FSCA) .

Updated distribution ( Figure 21 )

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Arkansas ( Heinrich 1977), Florida (new state record), Georgia ( Heinrich 1972), Louisiana ( Heinrich 1972), Mississippi ( Heinrich 1971), Tennessee ( Heinrich 1977).

Host

Unknown.

Male

The first description of a male was provided by Heinrich (1972, p. 210), who referred to the specimen as the neallotype.

Comments

Heinrich (1971, p. 1025) described the genus Neolinycus and the species N. michaelis based on a single female from Mississippi ( Figure 17 ). The same author, a year later, described a new subspecies, Neolinycus michaelis georgianus Heinrich, 1972 , based on a female from Georgia that was ‘Chromatically strikingly different, particularly by color of mesoscutum and pleuron’ ( Figure 18 ) ( Heinrich 1972, p. 210). According to Heinrich (1972), N. michaelis georgianus differs from the nominotypical subspecies by the following characters: black mesoscutum (orange in michaelis ); longitudinal white lines running across the mesoscutum (small and reduced in michaelis ); mostly orange pleura (mostly white in michaelis ); white prescutellar carinae (orange in michaelis ). In the same work, he also described the male of N. michaelis michaelis for the first time, acknowledging the presence of slight infuscation of the metasoma on tergites 2–5, and the different colouration of the mesoscutum, with the lateral lobes black and the median lobe orange. Later on, Heinrich (1977, p. 282) proposed another new subspecies, Neolinycus michaelis arkansae , this time based on two male specimens from Arkansas ( Figure 19 ), that differ from the other two subspecies by: the entirely black mesoscutum (character revised below); the black bands on metasoma covering more than half of 2–5 tergites; the mostly white mesopleuron; prescutellar carinae not white marked. The differences among all these subspecies are summarised in Table 1 . Carlson (1979, p. 542) synonymised N. michaelis georgianus without providing any evidence or comments for the new proposed treatment and failed to list N. michaelis arkansae in his catalogue of Ichneumoninae of North America. It is not clear whether Yu et al. (2016) reocrded Carlson’s (1979) treatment and considered the subspecies georgianus to be a synonym.

Reading Heinrich (1972, 1977), it is pretty clear that the author’s subspecies hypotheses are mostly based on two factors: colour pattern and distribution. After studying the type specimens of the different subspecies, we realised that the ‘entire mesoscutum black’ that Heinrich (1977, p. 282) listed among the characters important for the separation of N. michaelis arkansae from the other two subspecies is incorrect: two reduced white stripes are clearly present on the mesoscutum, and the pin simply obscures part of them ( Figure 19a ). The character has been revised in Table 1 . Moreover, we have also analysed several specimens of Neolinycus from Florida and Georgia, and the same specimens that Porter (2003) examined and wrongly identified as Cyclolabus carolinenesis Heinrich, 1962 . Because of this new material, we provide here three lines of evidence that, when analysed together, falsify the subspecies concepts proposed by Heinrich and that support both Carlson’s (1979) synonymisation and the establishment of a further new junior synonym N. michaelis michaelis = N. michaelis arkansae . The first evidence derives from the observation of specimens that have a colour pattern halfway between the purportedly different subspecies. For instance, a male specimen from Florida has tergites 2–5 of the metasoma infuscate (condition considered diagnostic for N. michaelis michaelis ) but associated with a complete black mesoscutum with well-developed longitudinal white lines (condition considered diagnostic for N. michaelis georgianus ) ( Figure 20a–b ). Nine male specimens have very reduced longitudinal white lines on the mesoscutum that are partially red (median lobe) and partially black (lateral lobes) (typical of males of N. michaelis michaelis ) but with black bands covering more than half of tergites 2–5 (typical of N. michaelis arkansae ) ( Figure 20c–d ). Eight other females fitting the colour pattern expected for the latter subspecies were collected among male specimens with colour pattern halfway between N. michaelis georgianus and N. michaelis arkansae . The second line of evidence is composed of specimens collected in the ‘wrong range’ – that is, the range expected/ascertained/assumed to be that of the other subspecies. This is the case for four males that correspond to the holotype of N. michaelis arkansae and were collected in Georgia, which is the typical range of N. michaelis georgianus . The third line of evidence is composed of specimens well matching with the colour pattern expected for two different subspecies but collected together in the same location. This is the case for a female that agrees chromatically with the definition of N. michaelis michaelis by having an orange mesoscutum with very reduced white longitudinal stripes but was collected in Florida among specimens matching the colour pattern of N. michaelis georgianus ( Figures 20e–f ).

From all the above evidence, it is clear that a continuum in colour pattern and distribution exists, and the subspecies cannot be unequivocally differentiated based either on consistent morphological traits or on clear distributional patterns. Therefore, we hereby regard for the first time N. michaelis arkansae as a junior synonym of N. michaelis michaelis and confirm the synonymisation by Carlson (1979) of N. michaelis georgianus with N. michaelis michaelis .

Heinrich (1971, p. 1025) reported Michael Horan as the collector of the type for N. michaelis . There is no collector information on the labels ( Figure 17c ).

Heinrich (1972, p. 210) reported F. Naumann as the collector of the type for N. michaelis georgianus . There is no collector information on the labels ( Figure 18c ).

Figures

Figure 17. Neolinycus michaelis Heinrich 1971, holotype ♀. a) Habitus, dorsal view. b) Habitus, lateral view. c) Labels. From Schmidt (2021a).

Figure 18. Neolinycus michaelis georgianus Heinrich, 1972, holotype ♀. a) Habitus, dorsal view. b) Habitus, lateral view. c) Labels. From Schmidt (2021b).

Figure 19. Neolinycus michaelis arkansae Heinrich, 1977, holotype ♂. a) Habitus, dorsal view. b) Habitus, lateral view. c) Labels. From Schmidt (2021c).

Figure 20. Neolinycus michaelis Heinrich, 1971, colour variation. a) Habitus, lateral view, ♂. b) Habitus, dorsal view, ♂. c) Habitus, dorsal view, ♂. d) Habitus lateral view, ♂. e) Habitus, lateral view, ♀. f) Habitus, dorsal view, ♀.

Figure 21. Neolinycus michaelis Heinrich, 1971, distributional map: known records (in blue) and newly recorded state (in yellow).