Acmopolynema incognitum ( Narayanan, Subba Rao & Kaur 1960 )

TRIAPITSYN, SERGUEI V. & BEREZOVSKIY, VLADIMIR V., 2007, Review of the Oriental and Australasian species of Acmopolynema, with taxonomic notes on Palaeoneura and Xenopolynema stat. rev. and description of a new genus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), Zootaxa 1455 (1), pp. 1-68 : 12-13

Acmopolynema incognitum ( Narayanan, Subba Rao & Kaur 1960)

( Figs 9, 10 )

Maidliella incognita Narayanan, Subba Rao & Kaur 1960: 889–890 . Type locality: New Delhi, India (holotype female

[IARI], not examined). Polynema (Maidliella) incognita (Narayanan, Subba Rao & Kaur) : Narayanan & Subba Rao 1961: 667. Acmopolynema incognita (Narayanan, Subba Rao & Kaur) : Subba Rao & Hayat 1983: 131, 150; Subba Rao 1989: 154;

Hayat 1992: 85. Acmopolynema incognitum (Narayanan, Subba Rao & Kaur) : Hayat & Anis 1999: 303.

Material examined

INDIA: Uttar Pradesh, Aligarh , 17.iii.1981, M. Hayat [3 females (determined by M. Hayat, 1989), UCRC] .

Diagnosis

This species is presently not assigned to any species group.

FEMALE. The scape has cross-ridges on the inner surface, F1–F5 are yellowish brown, F6 and clava are dark brown ( Fig. 9 ), the marginal vein of the forewing has 1 dorsal macrochaeta, the forewing ( Fig. 10 ) has one brownish spot in the middle with modified setae of types C and F, the propodeal carinae do not extend to half the length of the propodeum, and the ovipositor is markedly exserted beyond the apex of gaster (by about 1/5 of gaster length according to Subba Rao (1989), but only by about 1/8 of gaster length in one of the specimens we examined).

MALE. Unknown.

Distribution India: New Delhi ( Subba Rao 1989) and Uttar Pradesh ( Hayat 1992).

Comments

The descriptive notes on this species by Narayanan & Subba Rao (1961), Subba Rao & Hayat (1983) and Subba Rao (1989) are contradictory. The species was described from a single female from Delhi ( Narayanan et al. 1960); a more precise location (New Delhi) was later indicated by Subba Rao (1989), who mentioned two females in BMNH (collected in Mudigere, Karnataka, India 28.x.–3.xi.1979 by J.S. Noyes). When visiting the BMNH, the senior author found two females and a male, all card-mounted and identified as " Acmopolynema incognita ". These two females do not belong to A. incognitum , but rather to A. problema sp. n. described below, which is superficially similar to A. incognitum . The male, on which Subba Rao’s (1989, p. 154) short description of the male of this species almost certainly was based: "Male: Essentially similar to female except for the sexual characters", belongs to an undescribed, very unusual (characterized by a wide forewing) species of Palaeoneura . There was an additional card-mounted male of this undescribed Palaeoneura sp. among the unsorted Mymaridae in BMNH, collected 28.x–3.xi.1979 by J.S. Noyes 25 km W of Mudigere.

Figures

FIGURES 9, 10. Acmopolynema incognitum (female, India). 9. Antenna. 10. Forewing.