The Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot: the example of Chalcididae (Hymenoptera) with the description of a new species of Phasgonophora Westwood and a review of the regional species
Author
Binoy, C.
Author
Nasser, M.
Author
Santhosh, S.
text
Journal of Natural History
2022
2022-11-18
56
41 - 44
1627
1655
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2134059
journal article
197348
10.1080/00222933.2022.2134059
1800efa9-1ebe-4116-97c4-91d5a8d015a8
1464-5262
7340886
Genus
Megachalcis
Cameron, 1903
Megachalcis
Cameron 1903: 96
.
Type
species
Megachalcis fumipennis
Cameron
, by monotypy.
Allocentrus
Cameron 1911: 12
.
Type
species
Allocentrus hirticeps
Cameron
, by monotypy.
Macrochalcis
Masi 1944: 136
.
Type
species
Macrochalcis bischoffi
Masi
, by original designation.
Recognition
Metasoma in female pronounced, produced into long tail-like syntergum, Gt2–Gt4 strongly reduced and for the most part hidden under the large first tergite; PMV much longer than MV; mesosoma often with rasp-like sculpture and body with patches of silvery setae.
Note
Members of the
Oriental
genus
Megachalcis
Cameron
are very rarely encountered in collections and are probably parasitoids of wood-boring beetles, occurring in naturally rich rainforest habitats, although no actual host records are available to date (
Bouček 1988
). Two specimens (
one male
and
one female
) were collected during the present survey from forests of southern Western Ghats. The female specimen runs to
M. kannapuramensis
Sureshan and Girish Kumar,
2018
in the key to species (
Sureshan et al. 2018
) with slight differences in the colour. The species is here redescribed with illustrations of both the
holotype
and the freshly collected specimen. The male specimen collected is strikingly different from all the females and is here described without formally naming it.