Horismenus productus (Ashmead)

Hansson, Christer, Aebi, Alexandre & Benrey, Betty, 2004, Horismenus species (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) in a bruchid beetle parasitoid guild, including the description of a new species, Zootaxa 548, pp. 1-16 : 13-14

Horismenus productus (Ashmead)

Figs 26–29

Holcopelte productus Ashmead, 1894a:342 . Lectotype female in USNM, here designated, examined.

Horismenus productus (Ashmead) , Schmiedeknecht (1909).

Diagnosis. Female gaster short (MM/LG = 1.8) and round; female funicular segments short and stout ( Fig. 26 ), e.g. first funicular segment 1.5X as long as wide; male scape swollen ( Fig. 27 ), 3.2X as long as wide.

Description. Length of body female 1.8 mm, male 1.6 mm.

Scape yellowish­brown, pedicel and flagellum dark brown with metallic tinges. Frons metallic purple in female, golden­green in male. Vertex golden­green. Mesosoma goldengreen, propodeum golden­green tinged with blue. Coxae golden­purple; femora, tibiae and tarsi yellowish­white. Wings hyaline. Petiole dull golden­purple. First gastral tergite golden­green in anterior half, dull golden­purple in posterior half.

Female antenna as in Fig. 26 , male scape as in Fig. 27 (flagellum missing in male antenna). Frons with strong small­meshed reticulation, reticulation weaker above frontal suture, interscrobal area and clypeal region smooth and shiny; frontal suture V­shaped and complete; antennal scrobes join below frontal suture. Vertex with weak small­meshed reticulation; with a median groove in posterior half, groove continues down on occiput. Occipital margin rounded. Ratios of HE/MS/WM female 3.1/1.0/1.8, male 3.8/1.0/2.2; POL/OOL/POO 2.3/1.0/1.3; WH/WT 1.2.

Mesoscutum with strong large­meshed reticulation. Scutellum with strong and engraved reticulation. Dorsellum smooth, with two large foveas anterolaterally. Coxae predominantly smooth and shiny with very weak reticulation at base. Fore wing speculum open below. Propodeal callus with two setae. Ratios of LW/LM/HW 1.8/1.1/1.0; PM/ST 1.4.

First tergite smooth and shiny in anterior half, posterior half microreticulate with elongate meshes, remaining tergites hidden in first tergite. Ratios of MM/LG female 1.8, male 2.0.

Hosts. Bruchus amicus Horn ( Ashmead 1894a) . Host records published after the original description remain uncertain due to the difficulties of species identification and the confused nomenclature associated with this species.

Distribution. USA (New Mexico).

Material examined. Lectotype female “N. Mex.", “ Type No. 2144, U.S. N.M.” (USNM). Paralectotypes: 3 females, 1 male with same label data as lectotype (USNM). The lectotype and the paralectotypes are designated here (see below under “Remarks”).

Remarks. The type material of Horismenus productus Ashmead (1894a) consists of five specimens on three pins, two females, a male and a female, and a female. The single female, the male and the female on the same pin, and one of the females (the smaller female) on the pin with two females, are conspecific. The larger female on the pin with the two females belongs to a different species. The original description of productus is brief and not especially informative, but from the size range of the specimens given in the description (2–2.6 mm) it is obvious that productus was described from all specimens mentioned here. Possibly more specimens were included in the original description, specimens that subsequently have been lost – Ashmead states “several specimens” in the description. Since there are two species in the type material of productus , the question is which species shall bear the name “ productus ”. The description is of no help here so either one will do. We choose the species represented by most specimens, and also represented by both sexes, to carry the name productus . To maintain the nomenclatural stability we select the (smaller) female on the pin with the two females as lectotype for Horismenus productus . The large female on the same pin as the lectotype belongs to H. butcheri which is described above. The remaining type specimens mentioned here are designated as paralectotypes.

Ashmead described another species with the same name ( productus ), and during the same year (1894b), but this latter species was from St. Vincent. The “St. Vincent­species” has subsequently been renamed, “ ashmeadii ” ( Dalla Torre 1898), and is not conspecific with productus from New Mexico (which retains the name productus ). Both species were originally described in genus Holcopelte , but both have subsequently been transferred to Horismenus .

The gastral tergites and sternites 2–7 have been retracted into the first tergite in all type specimens. The single male has lost the flagellum on both antennae.

Figures

FIGURES 20 – 29. Horismenus spp. 20 – 26. Antenna lateral. 20. H. butcheri, female. 21. H. butcheri, male. 22. H. depressus, female. 23. H. depressus, male. 24. H. missouriensis, female. 25. H. missouriensis, male. 26. H. productus, female. 27. H. productus, scape lateral, male. 28. H. produc­