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Philoctetes putoni (du Buysson, 1892)

PostPosted: 14 Dec 2013 00:37
by Euchroeus
Some observations on a very rare European species: Philoctetes putoni (du Buysson, 1892)

Notozus putoni Buysson (in André) 1892: 108. Holotype ♂; France: 'Basses Alpes', Larche (Paris) [type examined]
= Philoctetes delvarei Tussac & Tussac, 1993: 473. Holotype ♂; France: Hautes-Alpes, Arvieux, 1.750 m (Paris) [type examined]

N. putoni was traditionally included in the genus Elampus Spinola (= Notozus Foerster), but it truly belongs to the genus Philoctetes sensu Kimsey & Bohart (1991).
Only few authors had correctly interpreted the systematic position of this taxon. Abeille (1879: 20), Trautmann (1927: 30) and Linsenmaier (1951: 96, 1959a: 16) considered putoni Buysson as a synonym of ambiguus Dahlbom, without type examination. In particular all the specimens found in the Linsenmaier collection under the name ambiguus Dahlbom are putoni (du Buysson). Kimsey & Bohart (1991) listed putoni in the genus Elampus . Mingo (1994: 37, 41) included ambiguus in the dichotomous key for the genus Elampus, but her description is referred to Philoctetes putoni (du Buysson).

In Rosa 2006 I gave the description of the species and some SEM picture of the body:





In the last years Christian Schmid-Egger collected many specimens in different localities of the Mercantour Parc (France). P. putoni seems to be widely distributed in the Parc. Larche (loc. typ.) is only few km far away from the Italian boundary and this species should be found also on the Italian side. At the beginning I considered the specimens collected by Christian as helveticus (Linsenmaier, 1959) for the very long and dense pubescence, but after the type examination I could stated that they belong to putoni and that the pubescence could be variable, more or less dense, as well as the shape of the metanotal projection.

Philoctetes delvarei Tussac & Tussac is a synonym of P. putoni. The holotype and a paratype are housed in the Paris Museum and they have been collected only few km far from the typical locality of putoni. The French authors did not consider the description of putoni because it was included in the genus Elampus in the monograph of the Chrysidid of the World by Kimsey & Bohart (1991) and this taxon clearly belongs to the genus Philoctetessensu Kimsey & Bohart.

Here two pictures of the types of putoni (du Buysson) and ambiguus Dahlbom: