Revision of the Neotropical genus Macreupelmus Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Eupelmidae)
Author
Gibson, Gary A. P.
text
Zootaxa
2016
4161
1
81
115
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4161.1.3
519a6a20-81f4-488f-a7f2-c48b09bdc441
1175-5326
256050
5BBA7F64-D281-4CB0-B78C-CD1276452290
Brasema baccharidis
(Kieffer)
n. comb.
Macreupelmus baccharidis
Kieffer
in
Kieffer & Jörgensen, 1910
: 376
–377. Holotype ♀, location unknown.
Remarks
.
Kieffer & Jörgensen (1910)
apparently reared a single female that Kieffer described as
Macreupelmus baccharidis
from galls of
Baccharomyia interrupta
(Kieffer & Jorgensen)
(=
Lasioptera interrupta
) (
Diptera
:
Cecidomyiidae
) collected in
Argentina
along with five other parasitoid species in the families
Platygastridae (Platygastroidea)
,
Eulophidae
and
Torymidae (Chalcidoidea)
. The location of the female is not known and is presumed lost, but based on the description it could not have been a
Macreupelmus
because the fore wings are described as hyaline and the mandibles as being tridentate with three equally long, small teeth. Among other described features, the fore wing was also described as entirely setose, body color as metallic golden-green with some coppery luster, the basal four mesotarsomeres as having a single row of pegs along either side, the eyes setose, and the gaster as being as long as the rest of the body, almost linear with non-emarginate tergites of about the same length, and the last tergite as having a transverse row of long bristles. In combination, these features indicate either a female
Brasema
Cameron
or possibly a female
Zaischnopsis
with hyaline fore wings.
Brasema
is much more likely because females of this genus have the syntergum apically truncate to slightly incurved with a transverse row of variably conspicuous setae projecting posteriorly from its margin. Further, many species are known parasitoids in galls of various insects (
Gibson 1995
;
Noyes 2016
). Although females of some species of
Zaischnopsis
have completely hyaline fore wings, the syntergum is apically reflexed into a flange so that setae do not project conspicuously from the apex as described by
Kieffer & Jörgensen (1910)
. Also, although hosts of
Zaischnopsis
are almost completely unknown, rearings of many different
types
of galls have never produced a known
Zaischnopsis
and the few reliable host records indicate they likely are egg-parasitoids (
Gibson 2005
). For these reasons I hereby transfer
Macreupelmus baccharidis
Kieffer
to
Brasema
as
B. baccharidis
(Kieffer)
n. comb.
The description provided by
Kieffer (1910)
may well be sufficient to recognize the species after a revision of the species of
Brasema
from
Argentina
.