Ophion rostralis Meyer, 1935

Johansson, Niklas, Ameri, Ali, Riedel, Matthias, Talebi, Ali Asghar & Ebrahimi, Ebrahim, 2021, Contribution to the Ophioninae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) of Iran with the description of 16 new species and an illustrated key to the Eremotylus of the Western Palaearctic, Zootaxa 5023 (2), pp. 151-206 : 184

Ophion rostralis Meyer, 1935

Ophion rostralis Meyer, 1935: 47 . Type from Turkmenistan, lost.

Material examined: TURKMENISTAN: 1 ♂ in ZIN determined by Meyer and referred to by Townes et al. (1965) . IRAN: 9♀♀, Semnan Province, Shakhmirzad area, Chasm env. 35˚49’N, 53˚15’E 2200 m. a. s., 14 Jun. 2009, A. Klimenko leg. ( MR) ; 1♀, Golestan Province, 20 km S Gorgan city, 36˚43’N, 54˚35’E, 700 m . a. s., 10 May 2009, A. Klimenko leg. ( MR) ; 1♀, Khorasan Province, Western part, Bojnurd area, Gerivan N, 37˚17’N, 57˚13’E, 12 May 2009, A. Klimenko leg. ( MR) ; 2♂♂, 1♀, Semnan Province, Damghan area 15 km SW Agareh v., 36˚06’N, 53˚43’E, 2000 m. a. s., 12 Jun. 2009, A. Klimenko leg. ( MR) .

DNA Barcode: The DNA barcode sequences of two specimens of Ophion rostralis are available at the BOLD systems database: sample id. NJP740/741, sequence id. LNU2576-21/2577-21.

Remarks: The type of Ophion rostralis , collected in Baýramaly in Turkmenistan is lost, as is one none type female determined by Meyer ( Townes et al. 1965, Andrey Khalaim ZIN pers. comm.). The original description is quite vague and could be attributed to several species of Ophion occurring in the area. However, in the collection in St. Petersburg there is one male determined by Meyer, which is the closest one can get to a name bearing specimen for the time being. The male differs from the original description in having the mouthparts of normal constitution, the scutellum without lateral carinae and the body more yellow than brownish red, which may lead to the assumption that the superficially similar Ophion bipictor Aubert, 1980 was also included in the original description. The male in ZIN is similar to Ophion slaviceki Kriechbaumer, 1892 , but has the temples more strongly narrowed and the apical flagellomeres stouter. The body is strongly polished with very weak punctures. The mandibles are lacking internal angles, thereby similar to the mandibles of Ophion slaviceki .