Latuspina Monzen, 1954

Melika, George, Pujade-Villar, Juli, Abe, Yoshihisa, Tang, Chang-Ti, Nicholls, James, Wachi, Nakatada, Ide, Tatsuya, Yang, Man-Miao, Pénzes, Zsolt, Csóka, György & Stone, Graham N., 2010, 2470, Zootaxa 2470, pp. 1-79 : 18

Latuspina Monzen, 1954 , new status

Figs 106–114, 115–120, 121–126.

Type species: Neuroterus (Latuspina) stirps Monzen, 1954 . Designated herein by monotypy.

The original description does agree with a Neuroterus character set, except that the projecting part of the ventral spine of the hypopygium is not normally pointed at the apex, but “dilated like a spatula” ( Monzen 1954). The difference in the ventral spine of the hypopygium is a characteristic rather of generic level than of subgeneric one. Thus, Latuspina is elevated to a genus rank and consequently, the placement of Latuspina into Neuroterus is incorrect.

Diagnosis. The striking feature of Latuspina females is the prominent part of the ventral spine of the hypopygium with two subapical lateral lumps, spine tri-forked, each of lumps with 5-8 long setae extending far beyond apex. No other Cynipini possess with such a shape of the ventral spine of hypopygium. In the male antenna, the pedicel is as long as scape, both strongly flattened and broad, at least twice broader than the width of flagellomeres, while in all other male Cynipini , that lack entirely or possess an incomplete transscutal articulation, the pedicel is always shorter than scape, both less flattened and broad, and less than twice broader than flagellomeres. On the basis of these unique characters, we establish a new genus, Latuspina Monzen.

The original description of Latuspina stirps ( Monzen 1954) is very brief and insufficient for all taxonomic purposes and thus we provide a complete redescription below.