Pleistodontes imperialis Saunders, 1883

Pérez-Gómez, Álvaro, Sánchez-García, Íñigo, Royo, José Manuel, Rasplus, Jean-Yves & Robla, Jairo, 2025, Unveiling an intricate relationship: Ficus trees, their associated wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) and another story of invasion in the Iberian Peninsula and Europe, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 98, pp. 667-687 : 667-687

Pleistodontes imperialis Saunders, 1883

Material studied.

Spain: • Cádiz: Jerez de la Frontera ( Zoobotánico de Jerez ): 2 ♂ + 2 ♀ ex., Í. Sánchez leg. and AC deposit., 7-XII-2018, 82 m a. s. l., found in dissected syconia of Ficus rubiginosa (36.689315, -6.150638) . • Alicante: San Vicente del Raspeig: Vicente Savall Pascual street and University area : 7 ♀ + 8 ♂ ex., J. M. Royo leg. and AC deposit., 5-VII-2023, 193 m a. s. l., found in dissecting fallen syconia of Ficus rubiginosa tree, excepted two females found in syconia of Ficus macrophylla in an urban area (38.389033, -0.518130). See in Fig. 1 C, D .

Ecological remarks.

Pollinator of Ficus rubiginosa . One specimen of Pleistodontes cf. imperialis was found inside a syconia of Ficus macrophylla f. columnaris (C. Moore) D. J. Dixon ( Speciale et al. 2015). We have found two female specimens as well in syconia of F. macrophylla . It has also been found in Ficus watkinsiana in Greece ( Koutsoukos et al. 2024 a) and mentioned in Ficus elastica Roxb. Ex Hornem. without additional data ( Falcó-Garí et al. 2010).

Distribution.

Native from eastern Australia ( van Noort and Rasplus 2024) and already reported from Israel, New Zealand and United States ( López- Vaamonde et al. 2002). The species has been found from several Mediterranean islands in which it was introduced recently: Sicily in Italy ( Lo Verde et al. 2007; Speciale et al. 2015), Gozo in Malta ( Mitsud et al. 2012), Canary Islands ( Reyes-Betancort et al. 2013) and Greece and Cyprus ( Compton et al. 2020 a; Koutsoukos et al. 2024 a). As the reports by Falcó-Garí et al. (2010) on eastern Spanish have no localities, we consider this as a first confirmed record for the Iberian Peninsula.

Short description.

Small species 1.8–1.9 mm. Female of Pleistodontes can easily be recognized by their elongated head, with long subparallel genae, mandibular appendage elongate, usually bearing more than 20 transverse laminae, rarely less, sometimes bearing transverse rows of small teeth ( Bouček 1988). Antennal scape usually elongate, sometimes shorter, mostly bearing a dorsal lamina which can be curved outwards and downwards. Pedicel rather short without dorsal spines. Third antennal segment elongates into a triangular process, always undivided and frequently elongate. Some species have no triangular expansion on the third antennal segment. Mesosoma bears pollen pockets, sometimes reduced, or absent. The fore tibia usually bears 2–3 spines in the dorso-apical comb, rarely only one. Ovipositor sheaths about as long as or shorter than metasoma. Venation is always complete ( López- Vaamonde et al. 2002). P. imperialis has been demonstrated to be a complex of morphologically related species ( Sutton et al. 2015). The wasps discussed here share all characters of the nominal species and morphologically the species occurring in Europe belong to the nominal entity.

Figures

Figure 1. Wasps cited in this work A female of Eupristina aff. verticillata Waterston, 1921 B Walkerella microcarpae Bouček, 1993 C female and D male of Pleistodontes imperialis Saunders, 1883 E female and F males of Philotrypesis okinavensis Ishii, 1934 G Eufroggattisca okinavensis (Ishii, 1934) H Josephiella microcarpae Beardsley & Rasplus, 2001.