Masona van Achterberg, 1995

Pos, Davide Dal, Broad, Gavin R. & Martens, Abigail P., 2024, Small jewels: two new species of the rare genus Masona van Achterberg (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonoidea, Braconidae), with a catalogue of world species and comments on the peculiar morphology of the genus, European Journal of Taxonomy 925 (1), pp. 135-160 : 138-139

Genus Masona van Achterberg, 1995

Masona van Achterberg, 1995: 97 .

Type species Masona prognatha van Achterberg, 1995 , by original designation.

Masonia [sic] – van Achterberg 1995: 154–155. Incorrect subsequent spelling of Masona van Achterberg, 1995 .

Diagnosis

The genus Masona has a highly unusual morphology relative to the rest of Ichneumonoidea . Quicke et al. (2019b) slightly modified the diagnosis of the genus (and therefore of the subfamily) based on the description of [ Masona ] timpaynei Quicke, 2019 . However, the latter is hereby treated as incertae sedis in the subfamily Neorhacodinae (see below), and, therefore, we report the original characters used to diagnose the genus: (1) head prognathous in most of females, orthognathous in males; (2) ocelli absent in the female, present in the male; (3) occipital carina absent ventrally; (4) labial palps one-segmented; (5) female wingless, males macropterous; (6) all femora strongly swollen in females; (7) ovipositor short, upcurved, with a long shallow dorsal notch.

Remarks

In the captions for the species Masona prognatha, van Achterberg (1995: 154–155 , figs 12–32) wrote the genus name as Masonia , which also appears on the original holotype label of the species ( van Achterberg (1995: fig. 9A). This is clearly a misspelling that unfortunately has never been reported before. Masonia should be considered an incorrect subsequent original spelling of the genus Masona , rendering the name unavailable ( ICZN 1999: Article 33.3).