Hyposoter neglectus ( Holmgren, 1860 )

Galsworthy, Anthony, Shaw, Mark R. & Haraldseide, Håkon, 2023, A key to European species of Hyposoter Förster, 1869 (Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae) with descriptions of 18 new species, and notes on all included species, Zootaxa 5290 (1), pp. 1-73 : 56-57

Hyposoter neglectus ( Holmgren, 1860)

Limneria neglecta Holmgren, 1860 : lectotype ♀ in NHRS, designated by Hinz (1964), examined.

syn. Anilasta varicoxa Thomson, 1887 ( Aubert, 1972)

syn. Limneria obscurella Holmgren, 1860 syn. n.: lectotype ♀ in NHRS, designated by Aubert (1972), examined.

This species has had a varied past: originally described in Limneria , it was placed by Thomson in Phobocampe . This was followed by Hinz (1964), who designated a lectotype. Aubert (1972), after examining Hinz’s lectotype, transferred neglectus to Hyposoter , and synonymised Limneria varicoxa Thomson with it. Jussila (1992) returned neglectus to Phobocampe . Horstmann (2013) reported that the lectotype of neglectus was lost, but returned the species to Hyposoter on the basis that Aubert’s earlier decision should be respected. He speculated that the confusion had arisen because the original type series had been mixed, and pointed out that the paralectotype, which he had seen, was a specimen of Phobocampe punctata Sedivy. The lectotype has since been found and we have examined both this and the paralectotype. Horstmann’s surmise was correct: the paralectotype is not conspecific with the lectotype.

We have also examined the lectotype of Hyposoter obscurellus Holmgren , which was also missing when Horstmann was working on neglectus . Aubert (1972) noted that it differed from the lectotype of neglectus only in the colour of the fore and mid trochanters, yellow in obscurellus and dark brown in neglectus . We have seen a series of neglectus from Abernethy Forest in Scotland in NMS, half of which have dark brown fore trochanters and half yellow. This seems to be an insignificant colour variation, and we therefore synonymise obscurellus with neglectus syn. n.

This is a comparatively easy species to recognise because of the combination of all-black metasoma, yellow tegulae and dark brown hind femora. There are rearing records from the geometrid moths Cabera exanthemata (Scopoli) ( Shaw et al. 2016) , Epirrita autumnata (Borkhausen) ( Kaitaniemi & Ruohomaki 1999) and Operophtera brumata (Linnaeus) ( Kerslake et al. 1996) , but we have not examined specimens reared from the last two.

We have seen specimens from Norway, Sweden, Germany and the UK. It has also been reported from Finland, Latvia, Poland, and Romania. Morley (1913) improbably referred a specimen from Sri Lanka to this species (as Hyposoter varicoxa ), but his description of it leaves no doubt that his determination was incorrect. We have seen specimens taken in every month from May to October, with June to August the most frequent. A long series from Norway has a strong peak in August.

Three specimens from the third author’s collection were barcoded (BOLD Sample IDs CollHH1210, 3485 and 3486).