Perilampus nitens Walker, 1834

Fig. 13

Perilampus nitens Walker, 1834: 163.

Perilampus antennatus Walker, 1834: 163. Synonymy by Mayr (1905: 566).

Perilampus selectus Walker, 1874: 313. Synonymy by Kerrich (1958: 77).

Diagnosis.

Head and mesosoma blue, with slight green or bronze reflections; metasoma bluish-black; female flagellum brownish-black, partly lighter ventrally. Body size: 3-5 mm. Head shape in frontal view (Fig. 13A, B) much wider than high. Head in lateral view not unusually long, without distinct sulcus separating posterior eye margin from temple. Clypeal margin (Fig. 13A, B) emarginate. Supraclypeal area (Fig. 13A, B) slightly transverse (less than 1.5 × as wide as high), sides not defined; in males without oval lateral impressions. Malar sulcus versus anterior margin of malar depression about equal in female. Frontal keels (Fig. 13A, B) absent. Face between scrobes and eye (Fig. 13A, B) smooth. Face between clypeus and eye (Fig. 13A, B) smooth. Lateral ocellus small (OOL at least twice the largest ocellar diameter). Funicular segments in female (Fig. 13A): most segments quadrate to transverse. Male scape (Fig. 13B) slightly widened distally, ventral pores on more than half scape length. Mesosoma (Fig. 13C) not narrow (less than 1.4 × as long as wide). Mesoscutum sculpture (Fig. 13C) without smooth median tubercle; interspaces smaller than punctures, smooth. Scutellum hind margin (Fig. 13C) without a double carina, with small hardly bilobed protruding projection. Prepectus (Fig. 13D) wide, dorsal margin longer than pronotal collar; well defined anteriorly (i.e. suture with pronotum very distinct); all sides with punctures (anterior side sometimes with much smaller punctures or partly interrupted), leaving a large smooth central area.

Material examined.

France: 2♀, " Ventoux: Col de Perrache (4) 8. 8. 1988 ", "fts descr. of chlorinus Fö.”, "Perilampus Perilampus Wlk. ♀, Bouček det. 1989" (NHMUK) ; 1♂, " Mont Ventoux, Col de Perrache (2) 22. 7. 1978 ", "Perilampus Perilampus Wlk. ♂, Bouček det. 2001" (NHMUK). Romania : 1♀, 1♂, " Iași county, Bârnova forest, Poiana Ciobanului, 21.vi.2007, L. Fusu & O. Popovici leg." (MICO) ; 1♀, " Iași county, Bârnova forest, Poiana cu Schit Nat. Res., 28.vi.2017, ent. net, Leg. M.-D. Mitroiu" (MICO) .

Hosts.

Associated with Lasiocampidae ( Lepidoptera); hyperparasitoid of Braconidae ( Hymenoptera).

Distribution.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, North Macedonia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia.

Comments.

Perilampus nitens is part of the group of species without any frontal keels. It most closely resembles P. ruschkai (Fig. 17) and can be separated from it mainly by the more strongly punctuate gena and frons between eye and scrobes (Fig. 13A, B), the supraclypeal area poorly defined (Fig. 13A, B), and the body entirely blue (Fig. 13). According to Bouček (see Material examined), P. chlorinus Förster, 1859 could be the same as P. nitens; however, these have not been formally synonymized, as the type of P. chlorinus is probably lost.