Platyceraphron muscidarum, Kieffer, 1906

Forshage, Mattias, Hanssen, Oddvar & Staverløkk, Arnstein, 2016, Platyceraphron Kieffer, 1906 (Hymenoptera, Megaspilidae) in the Nordic countries, Norwegian Journal of Entomology 63, pp. 125-129 : 126

Platyceraphron muscidarum in Sweden

One specimen from Sweden was mentioned by Dessart in his revision ( Dessart 1971), a reared female from Småland, Ålem, Strömsrum 1958. This specimen was collected by Knud Petersen and stated to be in the collection of his colleague as a dentist and an amateur entomologist both, the microhymenoptera specialist, Arne Sundholm (1907-1972). The Sundholm collection has since then been donated to the MZLU, but the specimen could not be found there .

Instead another Swedish specimen, from Jämtland, stood as Platyceraphron in MZLU. This was however a misidentified specimen, bearing a very ambiguous determination label from Dessart, saying ” Platyceraphron sp. ”, but the ”det” in ”det. P. Dessart” was crossed out and something more or less illegible, possibly ”borrows”, was handwritten. The Swedish specimen mentioned by Dessart had in fact not been returned to Sundholm and was found in the Dessart collection currently in IRSNB.

Despite this published record, Platyceraphron was not mentioned for Sweden, or any other Nordic countries, in the Fauna Europaea catalog ( Polaszek 2013), nor several unpublished lists circulating, nor – until recently – the official Swedish list at Dyntaxa ( Forshage 2009). Nevertheless, the genus had been included in the Swedish key by Landin with the comment ”one or few species in Sweden ” (”någon enstaka svensk art”) ( Landin 1971).

An additional specimen surfaced during these researches as it was returned to NHRS by Peter Neerup Buhl who had identified it. This was part of the Tyresta national park inventory carried out by Bert Viklund, Lars-Ove Wikars and Hans Ahnlund, as it happened, before and after the big forest fire in the park in 1999 ( Ahnlund et al. 2006). The specimen was caught in a Malaise trap in a severely burnt area ( Sweden, Södermanland, Tyresta NP, S Stensjön, RN 1643210 6564632), during the period 26 May–21 July 2001. Originally a semi-open pine forest ( Pinus sylvestris ) with scattered birch, spruce and aspen, this area had been intensely burnt, all trees dead and most fallen, much bedrock exposed .

No further Swedish specimens could be found in NHRS nor MZLU, nor in the Hedqvist collection in BMNH, and none have been noted so far in the Swedish Malaise Trap Project.