Platycelia ehrenbergi Dahlbom, 1845

Rosa, Paolo & Vardal, Hege, 2015, An annotated catalogue of the types of Chrysididae (Hymenoptera) at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, with brief historical notes, ZooKeys 495, pp. 79-132 : 114-115

Platycelia ehrenbergi Dahlbom, 1845

Platycelia Ehrenbergi : Dahlbom 1845: 8.

Type locality.

Egypt.

Holotypus

(?) 1 ♀. [Egypt] [Hedb.] [NHRS-HEVA000001077- NHRS-HEVA000001079].

Remarks.

Dahlbom (1845: 8) described "Platycelia Ehrenbergi nob. Ægypt. rariss. Hedenborg.". The use of " rariss." suggests that Dahlbom examined only one specimen. Confirmation is given by Dahlbom himself ( 1854: 220) "Habitat in Aegypto, a D. Hedenborg detecta. Unicum specimen vidi, e Museo Reg. Acad. Scient. Stockholm. a D. Boheman communicatum. ". In the collection three specimens belonging to the same species were located bearing the same labels. Boheman sent only one specimen of this series to Dahlbom, who described the species. Later the specimen was reintroduced in the original series and the label handwritten by Dahlbom was destroyed. Currently the holotype is “lost” within the series, and a neotype could be designated by the first revisor. We do not select a neotype, because all the three specimens correspond to the current interpretation of the species and therefore the neotype designation seems to be unnecessary.

A revision of the Chrysis ehrenbergi species-group is needed, because many subspecific names were proposed and their relation is not clear. Trautmann (1926: 7) described Cephalochrysis ehrenbergi var. vogti ; Linsenmaier (1968: 106, 107) described three different subspecies: Chrysis (Platycelia) ehrenbergi ssp. vinaria , Chrysis ehrenbergi ssp. hylae , Chrysis ehrenbergi ssp. chrysodorsa (= Chrysis ehrenbergi vogti Trautmann). Linsenmaier (1968: 106) wrote that Chrysis ehrenbergi exists with different ecological and geographical forms: "ehrenbergi Dhlb. existiert in, mindestens im ♀ Geschlecht, durch die Färbung deutlich getrennten, ökologischen und geographischen Formen. Die Nominatform scheint auf Ägypten beschränkl zu sein. ♀ grün, K und Th obern bronzefarben oder mit weniger intensiven kupfernen Reflexen, Abd oben rosa-kupfern. ". However, some ecological or geographical forms could be valid species, as in the case of Chrysis ignita (Linnaeus).

Linsenmaier always considered Platycelia Dahlbom as a valid and well-characterized subgenus; Linsenmaier (1997a: 285) observed that Kimsey and Bohart (1991) elevated some subgenera to generic level (e.g. Spintharina Semenow), whereas other subgenera equally or even more characteristic (e.g. Platycelia Dahlbom, Pyria Lepeletier, etc.) were downgraded to species-group even if clearly separated from the heterogeneous genus Chrysis Linnaeus. The generic status and placement of Platycelia should be checked in the future, with the help of molecular analysis.

Current status.

Chrysis ehrenbergi (Dahlbom, 1845) (transferred by Dalla Torre 1892: 58).