Sycophila mellea (Curtis, 1831)

Razmi, Mehdi, Karimpour, Younes & Lotfalizadeh, Hossein, 2025, Bushgrass, Calamagrostis epigejos (Poaceae), a natural pool of chalcidoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) in Iran, Zootaxa 5696 (2), pp. 151-204 : 183-184

Sycophila mellea (Curtis, 1831)

Figs 25 , 26

Material examined. 15 ♀♀, 14 ♂♂: IRAN, West-Azarbaijan Province , Naqadeh, Solduz Wetland, 37º02′ N, 45º35′ E, 1277 m a.s.l., 21 July 2020, 29 April 2021, Y. Karimpour leg., ex Calamagrostis epigejos .

Diagnosis (abstracted from Zerova 1978). Female ( Fig. 25B ): yellow to ochraceous, nearly devoid of dark markings except sometimes propodeum with a narrow transverse black band basally and with a median black furrow, petiole black, and with faint dark regions on the mesosoma or gaster; head slightly transverse and frons slightly convex; eyes large, strongly convex; antennae inserted below middle of face; Fu 1 elongate (more than twice as long as wide), clava as long as the preceding three funicular segments combined; pronotum 1.5× as wide as long; propodeum weakly sloping, finely reticulate, with a narrow median furrow; femora thickened; fore wings with a fuscous region below marginal vein, darker apically and fading posteriorly; marginal vein triangularly widened; gaster laterally compressed; petiole elongate (2.5–3.0× as long as wide).

Male ( Fig. 25A ): similar in general coloration and structure to female but smaller and more slender; Fu 1 elongate as for female, and Fu 2 –Fu 4 slightly transverse; fore wings with fuscous region as for female; petiole conspicuously elongate, longer than metacoxa and nearly half length of gaster; with same restricted dark markings on body as female.

Remarks. The T-shaped dark marking on the propodeum ( Fig. 26A‒H ) is a key morphological feature of S. melea , helping distinguish it from related species, but both males and females show considerable variation in color, with the dark markings ranging from fully developed ( Fig. 26G,H ) to completely faded ( Fig. 26A,B ) and with intermediate forms ( Fig. 26A‒F ).

Distribution. IRAN: East Azarbaijan, Golestan, Mazandaran, Guilan Province (Lotfalizadeh 2008; Samin and Farzaneh 2016). EXTRALIMITAL: North America, Caucasus, Europe, former USSR, Kazakhstan, Turkey ( UCD Community 2023).

Biological association. Field observations confirm the consistent co-occurrence of this parasitoid with Tetramesa wasps across multiple host plant species. When combined with established biological associations documented in the literature, these findings definitively identify Tetramesa as the primary host genus for this parasitoid species. Primary host identified in the literature is the Poaceae gall-maker eurytomids belonging to genus Tetramesa (Lotfalizadeh 2008) and some species of Eurytoma ( UCD Community 2023) .

Figures

FIGURE 25. Sycophila mellea (Curtis). A. Male in lateral habitus. B. Female in lateral habitus.

FIGURE 26. Sycophila mellea (Curtis). A–H. various shapes of dark marking on the propodeum. The scale bar corresponds to 200 µm.