Synergus striatifrons Pujade-Villar & Lobato-Vila, 2017

Lobato-Vila, Irene, Equihua-Martínez, Armando, Estrada-Venegas, Edith G., Cibrián-Tovar, David, Barrera-Ruíz, Uriel M. & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2020, Synergus Hartig species group (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini) with partially smooth mesopleurae from the New World, Zootaxa 4822 (1), pp. 1-38 : 30

Synergus striatifrons Pujade-Villar & Lobato-Vila, 2017

Synergus striatifrons Pujade-Villar & Lobato-Vila, 2017 . Zoological Studies 56 (36): 20. Type material: UB (holotype), paratypes in UB, USNM and AMNH [examined by the first author in Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017)].

Material examined (56♂ & 97♀). New material collected in Mexico and deposited in UB with the following location data: MEX: P311, Huixquilucan ( EDO. MEX.), 19º21’40’’N, 99º21’03’’W, 2712m, Ex. Amphibolips hidalgoensis , Quercus sp., (05.vi.2017) emergència, M. Serrano leg.: 3♂ & 1♀; MEX: P379, Crta. Tulancingo-Pachuca (Singuilucan, HGO), 20º03’23.64’’N, 98º27’22.90’’W, 2390m, Ex. Amphibolips nr hidalgoensis , Q. crassipes , (24. vi.2018) vi.2019, JP-V leg.: 53♂ & 96♀.

Diagnosis. Synergus striatifrons is the only species addressed in this study that has the frons covered with striae projecting from toruli and lower face to the frons, reaching lateral ocelli.

Brief redescription. Female antenna 14-segmented, male antenna 15-segmented; F1 about 1.5 times as long as F2; F1 of males curved, long, weakly expanded apically and basally; face wide, more or less quadrate, transfacial line being about 1.3 times as long as height of compound eyes; malar space 0.8 times as long as height of compound eye; frons and vertex finely coriaceous, without punctures; frons covered by multiple weak striae extending from lower face and toruli to lateral ocelli; mesoscutum finely coriaceous, with a few piliferous punctures; notauli incomplete, faint in the anterior 1/3, wider posteriorly; scutellum finely coriaceous; scutellar foveae very shallow, with posterior margins indistinct, covered with some striae, separated by a narrow carina; circumscutellar carina well defined, projected and upturned; mesopleurae with a few striae medially, dorsally and basally smooth and shiny; metasoma not dorsodistally incised, clearly longer than high and with a few weak micropunctures forming a posterodorsal patch; radial cell closed, about 2.3 times as long as wide; tarsal claws with a small basal tooth; body mainly black or chestnut and yellow. For more details on the morphology of this species, see Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar (2017).

Distribution. Mexico. Originally described from the states of Ciudad de México, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas ( Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar 2017) and here also reared from galls collected in the states of Hidalgo and México (see the material examined).

Biology. Reared from galls of Amphibolips hidalgoensis Pujade-Villar & Melika, 2011 and A. zacatequensis Melika & Pujade-Villar, 2011 on Quercus eduardi Trel. and Q. crassipes Humb. & Bonpl. (Lobatae section) ( Lobato-Vila & Pujade-Villar 2017; and in this work, see the material examined). Some of the new specimens presented in the additional material (P379) were obtained from galls that resemble those of A. hidalgoensis , but that stopped growing in early stages of their development as a result of being attacked by parasitoids or lethal inquilines (probably S. striatifrons ).