Chrysis lyncea, Fabricius, 1775

Neveen, Paolo Rosa, Gadallah, Neveen S. & Edmardash, Yusuf A., 2025, New findings of cuckoo wasps for Yemen with nomenclatural changes and review of the Arabian hexadentate species of the genus Chrysis Linnaeus, 1761 (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae), Zoosystema 47 (11), pp. 151-166 : 158

Chrysis lyncea species-group

DIAGNOSIS. — Species of the lyncea group are recognised by the combination of following characters: first flagellomere short in both male and female (l/w = 1), with the exception of C. smithii female (l/w = 2.5); malar space short (0.5-0.75 MOD) in both sexes; subantennal space about 1 MOD; strong, raised, transverse frontal carina, not branched; pronotum medially much shorter than mesoscutellum; pronotum with acute humeral angle; mesopleuron medially, longitudinally flattened and polished, with a large acute tooth below the scrobal area; metanotal plate large, triangular, with or without median carina; posterior propodeal projections strong; third metasomal tergum saddled; margin of third tergum with four triangular apical teeth and two lateral angles, placed at the base of tergum (in C. lyncea ) or close to lateral teeth (in C. smithii ).

HOSTS. — Species of this group are recorded to parasitize the mud dauber wasps of the genus Sceliphron Klug, 1801 ( Sphecidae Latreille, 1802 ) ( Kimsey & Bohart 1991).

REMARKS

The present diagnosis of the group differs from that of Kimsey & Bohart’s (1991) for the inclusion of C. smithii and C. seyrigi Zimmermann, 1961 (resurrected by Rosa et al. 2020b). The real placement of these two species is somewhat uncertain, and they may represent at least a separated subgroup with the shape of the head, pronotum and mesopleuron corresponding to the diagnosis of the lyncea group. Moreover, they share common characters with the smaragdula group: elongate first flagellomere (l/w = 2.5) in the female, the shape of the apical margin with six aligned teeth and the large black spots on the second metasomal sternum. A unique character of these two species is found in the forewing, with the ancillary vein extending from the Radial sector ( Fig. 9D ). This vein is barely visible in the species closely allied to C. lyncea .

Figures

FIG. 9. — Chrysis smithii Gribodo, 1879, female, Zimbabwe (MHC): A, head, frontal view; B, head and mesosoma, dorsal view; C, head and mesosoma, lateral view; D, forewing; E, metasoma, dorsal view; F, metasoma, ventral view. Scale bars: 1 mm.