Eupelmus seculatus, (FERRIERE)

Fusu, Lucian, 2017, An integrative taxonomic study of European Eupelmus (Macroneura) (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Eupelmidae), with a molecular and cytogenetic analysis of Eupelmus (Macroneura) vesicularis: several species hiding under one name for 240 years, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 181 (3), pp. 519-603 : 558-560

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlw021
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A00D8796-0707-FF87-FE87-FD28FB43FB75
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Eupelmus seculatus
status

Treatment

SECULATUS (FERRIÈRE)

Figs 37 View Figures 35–42 , 58 View Figures 56–67 , 76 View Figures 68–87 (♀), 25, 33, 38, 104 (♂)

Eupelmella seculata Ferrière, 1954: 5 View in CoL . Lectotype ♀ (present designation), MNHN, examined. Type locality: France, Var , Fréjus.

Macroneura (Macroneura) seculata View in CoL – Kalina, 1981: 96.

Macroneura seculata View in CoL – Pujade i Villar, 1989: 153 (description of the male).

Eupelmus (Macroneura) seculatus – Askew & Nieves-Aldrey, 2000: 57.

Description: Female. Length = 1.4–2.7 mm. Body tricoloured, with a metallic green head, reddish-brown or brownish-yellow mesosoma and brown metasoma ( Fig. 37 View Figures 35–42 ). Head metallic bright-green with bronze and coppery-red reflections mostly near ocelli, along internal eye orbit, on parascrobal area and interantennal prominence; frons more or less distinctly tricoloured with green luster along inner orbits (except immediately near them where narrowly coppery) and mesally coppery-red below level of anterior ocellus. Antenna as described for E. rameli . Mesosoma with appendages and metasoma as described for E. aseculatus except metasoma dark brown, darker than mesosoma, and with comparatively longer and thicker setae.

Head in lateral view hemispherical, about 1.7× as high as long, transverse in dorsal view, 1.9–1.95× as broad as long. Frons and vertex alutaceous to coriaceous, appearing shiny under low magnification. Pedicel plus flagellum 1.1–1.2× head width. Pronotal ridge with erect setae about as long as pronotal collar. Mesoscutal plate with flat, V-shaped anterior region differentiated by minute reticulate sculpture and posteriorly very finely coriaceous to smooth mesally and shallowly concave. Scutellum and axillae weakly convex ( Fig. 58 View Figures 56–67 ). Acropleuron finely coriaceous to alutaceous, with almost completely effaced sculpture medially. Fore wing base extended to near petiole; basal cell densely setose dorsally; apical part normally abruptly bent upward, comparatively long, 2.0–2.4× as long as basal part, with marginal and postmarginal veins extended along outcurved leading margin and without a trace of the stigmal vein, posterior and leading margins curved to acute point resulting in a short-falcate fore wing apex ( Fig. 37 View Figures 35–42 ). Hind wing concealed beneath fore wing and apically reflexed. Middle leg with row of three to seven mesotibial apical pegs; mesotarsus with asymmetrical peg pattern on basitarsus, anterior margin with five to ten pegs in single row and posterior margin with two to three pegs within basal half, second tarsomere with zero to two apical pegs, third and fourth tarsomeres with zero or one apical peg on either side ( Fig. 76 View Figures 68–87 ); single specimen seen with all pegs on posterior margin of mesotarsus absent in one leg and with a single peg on posterior margin of basitarsus near base on the other leg. Metasoma ovoidal and comparatively broad, Gt5 coriaceous. Syntergum and anal plate forming truncate to somewhat obliquely inclined surface above ovipositor sheaths and gaster extending to about apex of second valvifer. Ovipositor sheaths 0.6–0.7× as long as metatibia and about 0.4× as long as metasoma.

Male. Length = 1.3–1.5 mm. Body metallic multicoloured ( Fig. 38 View Figures 35–42 ). Head with frontovertex dark violet with some coppery reflections and face, gena, and temples bright bluish-green with some bronze and coppery reflections mainly on scrobes; these areas of different colour well delimited along upper limit of scrobal depression ( Fig. 38 View Figures 35–42 , insert). Lower gena with one long seta ( Fig. 104 View Figures 103–110 ). Maxillary palpus completely yellow or with last palpomere variably extensively brownish apically. Antenna with scape dark brown with faint dark green luster except narrowly to more extensively yellow basally and on outer surface ventrally along longitudinal sensory region ( Fig. 104 View Figures 103–110 ), pedicel and flagellum brown; pedicel with line of four hooked setae ventrally; fl2–fl8 with dense, semierect, slightly curved pale setae, with only apices of setae parallel with segment surface; fl2–fl3 and sometimes fl4 with a group of two to four short, stout, black setae ventrally ( Fig. 104 View Figures 103–110 , insert). Pronotum dorsally and sometimes also anterior part of mesoscutum dark violet with bright coppery, green and golden reflections, but in some specimens pronotum brown with only faint metallic green and coppery-red luster. Mesoscutum bright green with golden luster, sometimes more bluish posteriorly; scutellar-axillar complex bronze with green and red reflections or bright green with golden reflections. Prepectus, mesopleuron, and metapleuron dark, with coppery-red and greenish luster. Tegula brown. Fore wing translucent, without brownish area behind marginal and stigmal veins; WIP with magenta to blue band in apical third ( Fig. 25 View Figures 19–26 ), but in smaller specimens with more golden and yellowish and then more similar to the WIP in the other species. Setae of costal and basal cells, disc and venation all similarly brown to dark brown; costal cell dorsally with single line of 8–13 setae near leading margin over about apical half or less, but clearly over more than parastigma length, and ventrally with two rows of setae along length except more setose distally in front of parastigma; basal cell similarly setose as disc, cubital fold setose along length ( Fig. 33 View Figures 27–34 ). Legs as described for E. falcatus . Metasoma dark brown except Gt1 with bluish-green to coppery luster basally and dark violet apically.

Antenna ( Fig. 104 View Figures 103–110 ) short, flagellum cylindrical, clava elongate with narrow ventral micropilose sensory region, pedicel plus flagellum 1.4–1.5× head width. Fl1 inconspicuous, strongly discoidal. Basal funiculars barrel-shaped, fl2 1.3–1.6, fl3 1.5–1.7, and fl8 1.4–1.5× as long as wide. Funiculars with MPS in single row. Mesosoma 1.8–1.9× as long as broad. Fore wing 2.1– 2.25× as long as broad. Propodeum coriaceous with percurrent median carina.

Comparative diagnosis: Because of the similar colour pattern, females of E. seculatus with broken fore wing rudiments can easily be mistaken for the much more common E. messene . They are recognized by their sparsely setose mesoscutal plate, which has the posteromedial concave region asetose or with one or two setae and is almost uniformly yellowish to yellowish brown with a light-purple metallic luster posteriorly, and the scutellum and axillae setose only along the outer margins (cf. Figs 58 View Figures 56–67 with 64). The males of E. seculatus are similar to and can be confused with those of E. (Eupelmus) microzonus and E. (Macroneura) falcatus (see under comparative diagnosis for the latter species).

Biology: Polyphagous species. Noyes (2015) list as hosts one species of Cecidomyiidae ( Diptera ), ten species of Cynipidae and one of Eurytomidae ( Hymenoptera ), and one of Notodontidae ( Lepidoptera ). Of these I have seen specimens reared from galls of P. quercusilicis ( Cynipidae ) on Quercus coccifera , Bruchophagus sp. ( Eurytomidae ) in seeds of Medicago sativa , and Bruchophagus roddi Gussakovskiy likely on the same plant. New host records are from galls of Stefaniola salsolae (Tavares) on Salsola vermiculata and of Lasioptera eryngii (Vallot) on Eryngium campestre ( Cecidomyiidae ).

Distribution: This species seems to be restricted to the western Mediterranean area (South France and Spain); all other records that could be checked are based on misidentifications of E. aseculatus , made prior to the description of the latter species. In the Balkans, it is replaced by E. rameli sp. nov., while E. aseculatus is distributed all over Southern Europe.

The records for former Yugoslavia ( Bouček, 1977) are probably related with E. aseculatus . Very likely three type specimens of E. aseculatus from Biograd n. m. [na Moru] ( Kalina, 1981) are the same specimens listed in Bouček (1977) under E. seculatus because they have the same collecting data. Also, the specimens of E. aseculatus from Italy, Bulgaria and Spain in the BMNH collection were all misidentified as E. seculatus .

Remarks: From the four specimens in the type series of Eupelmella seculata mentioned by Ferrière (1954), only three are present at MNHN, and as mentioned by Kalina (1981), the type series contains also specimens of E. (Macroneura) aseculatus . Only two specimens belong to Eupelmella seculata (see under type material examined). The first one, from Fréjus (Var), is glued with the ventral part to a rectangular card, it is uncontorted, with both antennae, left fore leg and hind right leg except coxa missing, and apical part of the left fore wing broken but glued to the card next to the specimen. It also bears a red printed label with ‘Type’. Because of the mixed type series, in order to preserve the stability of nomenclature, this specimen is here designated as lectotype. A second specimen is partly destroyed by mould and Kalina (1981) was not sure about its identity. The gaster, both fore wings, left antenna, and left hind leg except the coxa are missing, but after cleaning the middle legs it can be recognized as E. seculatus . The third specimen, from Plan d’Aups, belongs to E. aseculatus (see under material examined). The fourth specimen from the same locality is missing. Ferrière (1954) had doubts whether these last two specimens belong to E. seculatus , but he did not explicitly exclude them from the type series.

Type material examined: FRANCE: Lectotype ♀ of Eupelmella seculata Ferrière (present designation): Fréjus (Var) / Val. VII. [19]38 / F. Bernard [typewritten]; Type; Eupelmella / seculata sp. nov. / Ch. Ferrière det.; Lectotype; Lectoypus Eupelmella seculata Ferr. Det. Fusu L. 2011 . Paralectotype ♀ of Eupelmella seculata Ferrière : Monaco / jardin St [Saint] Michel/ IX [19]36 / F. Bernard; Eupelmella / seculata sp. nov. / Ch. Ferrière det.; Paralectotype; Paralectoypus Eupelmella seculata Ferr. Det. Fusu L. 2011 . Paralectotype ♀ of Eupelmella seculata : Plan d’Aupe (Var) / August 1939 / F. Bernard; Eupelmella seculata sp. nov. Ch. Ferrière det. [this specimen belongs to E. aseculatus , see remarks] (MNHN).