Trichopria Ashmead, 1893

Kim, Chang-Jun, Notton, David G. & Lee, Jong-Wook, 2016, Discovery of Trichopria keralensis (Hymenoptera, Diaprioidea, Diapriidae) in South Korea and Japan, a review of the keralensis species group of Trichopria and the nomenclature and synonymy of Alareka, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 52, pp. 143-151 : 144-145

Trichopria Ashmead, 1893

Phaenopria Ashmead, 1893

Planopria Kieffer, 1906

Xyalopria Kieffer, 1907

Orthopria Kieffer, 1911

Ashmeadopria Kieffer, 1912

Rhopalopria Kieffer, 1912

Abothropria Kieffer, 1913

Scapopria Kieffer, 1913

Neodiapria Kieffer, 1916

Alareka Rajmohana & Narendran, 2000, syn. n.; Rajmohana and Narendran 1999; 178, 180, nomen nudum; Rajmohana and Narendran 2000a: 193, nomen nudum; Rajmohana and Narendran 2000b: multiple original spellings Alareka pp. 21, 22, 23, fig, 22 and Alarika , p. 27, of which Alareka is the correct original spelling ( ICZN 1999, Art. 32.5.1); Rajmohana 2006: iv, 8, 23, 26; Liu, Chen and Xu 2011: 181; Nielsen and Buffington 2011: 613; Rajmohana and Bijoy 2012: 4 unpublished work; Rajmohana, Poorani, Shweta and Malathi 2013 unpublished work.

Remarks.

Before continuing further with a review of the morphology and classification of this taxon it is first necessary to clarify the confused nomenclatural history and spelling of the name Alareka : firstly it was published as a nomen nudum twice by Rajmohana and Narendran (1999, 2000a); it was first made available by Rajmohana and Narendran (2000b) but with the multiple original spellings Alareka and Alarika - the stated etymology was that it is an anagram of Kerala, and it was given feminine gender, so it can be assumed that this includes the feminine gender ending -a, i.e. the intended spelling was Alareka and that Alarika was a lapsus calami. Alareka Rajmohana & Narendran, 2000 is therefore available and Alarika is an incorrect original spelling ( ICZN 1999, Art. 32.5.1) must be corrected, and is not available.

New material of this genus was discovered the collections of Yeungnam University and The Natural History Museum, London showing that Alareka keralensis was more widespread than previous known and prompting a review of the status of the genus. A detailed redescription was made for Alareka (see Trichopria species group Trichopria keralensis - Description) below, which showed that some significant features had previously been missed or misinterpreted. A number of significant characters place this genus within Trichopria , specifically close to, if not within the group of species with males having whorled hairs on the antenna. These characters are: whorled hairs on the male antenna; male a3 and a4 normally articulated; slender fore-tibial spine present; mesoscutal hairs arranged in (1-)3 pairs. Alareka is highly derived in many ways but its derived features are extreme developments of characters already noted for Trichopria , such as: foamy structures made of large hyaline scales, which are found in e.g. T. drosophilae (Perkins, 1910); strongly compressed antennal scape found in e.g. T. vulgaris (Kieffer, 1912) and T. drosophilae ; strongly laterally compressed flagellum in both sexes found in e.g. T. drosophilae .

The most significant difference from Trichopria is the nasiform head and opisthognathous mouthparts; however there are several undescribed species of Trichopria from s. e. Asia which have subtriangular heads intermediate between Alareka and the normal subround head found in most Trichopria . Such differences in the degree of development of a nasiform head, and especially opisthognathous mouthparts, are not unusual in diapriids, even within the same genus. There is a linked character suite of head characters: elongate head, opisthognathous mouthparts and projections of the frons and antennal shelf which has arisen rapidly and repeatedly in Diapriidae and other microhymenoptera ( Nielsen and Buffington 2011). There are a number of diapriid genera including both opisthognathous and hypognathous species for example: Synacra Förster, 1856, Basalys Westwood, 1833, Aneuropria Kieffer, 1905 all of which include both opisthognathous and hypognathous species, and Vadana Rajmohana & Narendren, 2000 (hypognathous) is just a Calogalesus Kieffer, 1912 (opisthognathous). While it may be easy to recognize small groups of derived opisthognathous species, and both practical and useful to key them separately for the purposes of identification, it does not serve the purposes of classification to split these off as separate genera if it leaves larger genera paraphyletic as appears to be the case of Alareka and closely related Trichopria . In any case, other more senior generic names are already available for the group of Trichopria having males with whorled hairs, should the genus be divided in future. We conclude therefore that Alareka is just a small derived subgroup of Trichopria probably close to or from within the group of species having males with whorled hairs on the antenna as exemplified by T. verticillata (Latreille, 1805). Hence the genus Alareka is considered here to be a junior synonym of Trichopria syn. n. As a consequence of the new generic synonymy Alareka keralensis is transferred to Trichopria keralensis comb. n. Other generic synonymy given above is based on Johnson (1992) and Notton (2004, 2014).

There are a number of undescribed species which are closely related to T. keralensis and so T. keralensis and these closely related species are referred to here as the Trichopria keralensis species group of Trichopria . This species group is defined here: