Hyposoter brischkei ( Bridgman, 1882 )

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 : 35-36

Hyposoter brischkei ( Bridgman, 1882)

Limneria brischkei Bridgman, 1882 : holotype ♀ in NHMUK, examined.

There has been, and perhaps still is, confusion between this species and H. boops (Thomson) , which were first synonymized by Aubert (1975), and then again separated in Aubert (1997). Horstmann (2013) dealt with this problem and concluded that there was a constant difference between the two taxa in the sculpture of the propodeum, with the carinae defining the distal part of the area superomedia blurred or absent in brischkei but clearly defined in boops . In the very long series of brischkei in NMS there is a good deal of variation in this feature. In most cases the carinae to the rear of the costulae are faint or absent, and the area petiolaris is evenly and finely granulate. However, the lateral carinae of the distal half of the area superomedia are certainly visible in some specimens. We have found only one specimen marked by Horstmann as ‘boops’ in Horstmann’s collection: this is from the Harz mountains and might be the one mentioned in his 2013 paper: it has a strongly defined area superomedia and a much more rugose area petiolaris, but it also has very dark second and third sternites. Aubert described the area superomedia of the lectotype of H. boops , in translation, as ‘narrow, weakly defined, but with a trace of longitudinal carinae’. We have not ourselves seen the lectotype of H. boops , as Horstmann had, and have therefore left Horstmann’s draft key unchanged in this respect, continuing to treat the two species as distinct. But this is a stance that will certainly need to be revisited.

H. brischkei has been reared from a wide variety of noctuid and geometrid larvae, but also from two tortricids (details in Shaw et al. 2016). The holotype was reared from Xestia triangulum (Hufnagel) ( Lepidoptera , Noctuidae ). In NHMUK there are also 16 specimens reared in Scotland from Thera juniperata (Linnaeus) and 9 labelled as reared in southern England from “ T. variata ”, almost certainly T. obeliscata (Ḩbner) ( Lepidoptera , Geometridae ). This appears to be one of the commonest species of Hyposoter in the UK, and there are literature records from most countries in central and northern Europe. There is a very long series from Norway in the third author’s collection and we have seen specimens from Germany. We have seen specimens taken in all months from May to October, but most from June to September, with a strong peak in July and August.

Eight specimens from the third author’s collection were barcoded (BOLD Sample IDs CollHH1213, 1215, 3471, 3472, 3473, 3474, 3475, and 3487).