Prosthoporus nigrispina (Cameron) 1885

Santos, Bernardo F. & Aguiar, Alexandre P., 2013, <strong> Phylogeny and revision of <em> Messatoporus </ em> Cushman (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Cryptinae), with descriptions of sixty five new species </ strong>, Zootaxa 3634 (1), pp. 1-284 : 208-209

Prosthoporus nigrispina (Cameron) 1885 , comb. nov.

( Fig. 138 )

Mesostenus nigrispina Cameron 1885: 223 . Description. Holotype ♀ (BMNH, examined). Type data: Mexico, Valladolid in Yucatan (Gaumer).

Mesostenus nigrispina: Dalla Torre 1902 . Listed.

Mesostenus nigrispina: Schmiedeknecht 1908:56 . Listed.

Messatoporus nigrispina: Townes & Townes 1966: 123 . Generic transfer.

Messatoporus nigrispinus: Yu & Horstmann 1997:274 . Unjustified emendation; listed.

Messatoporus nigrispinus: Yu 1998 . Listed.

Messatoporus nigrispina: Yu et al. 2005 . Listed.

Messatoporus nigrispina: Kasparyan & Ruíz 2008: 331–332 . Diagnosis.

Comments. This species was originally described under Mesostenus , and then placed by Townes and Townes (1966) in Messatoporus . Type examination, however, showed that it is clearly a species of Prosthoporus , a genus which had not been described at the time of the generic transfer. The type of M. nigrispina shows the following combination of characters, all of them typical of Prosthoporus and absent or very rare in species of Messatoporus : mandible short, with dorsal tooth only slightly longer than ventral one; occipital carina complete, apically distinct; sternaulus weak and incomplete, reaching only about 0.4 of distance to mid coxa; lobes of fourth tarsomeres subequal; fore wing cell 1+2Rs distinctly transversely elongate, about 1.87 as wide as high; hind wing vein 2-1A absent; and ovipositor cylindrical, with ventral valve only partially overlapping dorsal valve as a lobe.

Prosthoporus and Messatoporus are, indeed, generally similar, though probably not closely related. They can be (and have been, including occasionally by the authors) easily mistaken with specimens of Messatoporus at naked eye, particularly because of the subcylindrical, slender body, first tergite slender, T7–8 longer than T5–6 and ovipositor thin, straight and basally cylindrical.

With the new status, P. nigrispinus represents the seventh species of Prosthoporus , and the second record of the genus from North America.

The specific epithet nigrispina is assumed to have been originally proposed as a noun in apposition to the original generic name Mesostenus . Therefore, the spelling Messatoporus nigrispinus provided by Yu and Horstmann is an unjustified emendation, and the species name should be maintained as P. nigrispina , the spelling used by Yu et al. (2005) and Kasparyan and Ruíz (2008).

Material examined. Holotype ♀ from MEXICO, B.M Type N. 36663. Most of palpi, both antennae, mid left leg after coxa, mid right t2–5, hind left leg after femur and hind right t5 missing. Fore left wing detached from specimen and kept in plastic capsule pinned with the specimen; other wings folded and dirty.

Distribution. Recorded only from the type locality, in eastern Mexico.

Figures

FIGURE 138. Prosthoporus nigrispinus, new combination, holotype female, lateral view.