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 Norway

A funny-looking wasp was noted and photographed by OH sorting material from flight interception traps at MRI, Nesset: Botnahaugen, N 62.779197 E 7.863476. It could easily be identified as a Platyceraphron sp. from the picture alone and as P. muscidarum when MF studied the specimen ( Figure 1 ). Two specimens were trapped at this locality in the periods, 21 May–2 June 2010 and 10 May–13 June 2011, respectively, leg. Ingvar Stenberg. The traps were mounted on standing trunks of aspen ( Populus tremula ) in the edge of a corridor for a recently built power line ( Figure 2 ). Botnahaugen is part of Sotnakkvatnet coniferous reserve, and the sampling area at 185 m. a.s.l. is surrounded by old forest of mainly pine, birch and aspen As a conservation measure the top of some aspens were cut in June 2006, and during the following years the dead trunks decayed to be habitats for a lot of insect species, among others large numbers of bark beetles of the genus Trypophloeus Fairmaire, 1869 ( Coleoptera : Curculionidae ).

Somewhat more directed attention during the normal processing of samples at NINA during the following seasons produced one more specimen from VE, Horten, Mellomøya, N 59.44323 E 10.45823, 06 May – 16. June 2015. One specimen caught in a Malaise trap under large oak Quercus robur with some dead wood on the ground ( Fig 3), leg. AS .

No specimens are currently known from Norway in the NMHO collection.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Platyceraphron muscidarum Kieffer, 1906 from MRI, Nesset, Botnahaugen. Photo: AS.

FIGURE 2. Flying interception traps on aspen trunks at MRI, Nesset, Botnahaugen collected two specimens of P. muscidarum. Photo: Ingvar Stenberg.