Chrysis.net Forum

Hello,
this one is from Soria (near El Burgo de Osma), central Spain. 24/6/2011.
Could it perhaps fit with Chrysis lusitanica?

Thanks for your help.

Dear Jose,

this time the ID is not easy.
For sure it is not lusitanica Bischoff and not even sculpturata Mocsáry, which belong to 2 different taxa and are not synonyms. It does not belong to any other known Spanish species of the ignita group listed by Mingo (1994).

Based on the colour of the thorax and the punctuation on T-II (which seems very dense with very small punctures) it could be similar to Chrysis chinensis Mocsáry [???]. I never collected this species and my only pair of specimens (from Mongolia) is currently in Villu Soon's collection, so I cannot compare it with any specimens. By the way, I see that in Van der Smissen monograph there are not images at all of this species, so I cannot say anything more. Otherwise it could be an other species of the brevitarsis subgroup (called pseudobrevitarsis aspekt in Van der Smissen work) or mediata subgroup. The next week I'll be in the Linsenmaier's collection and I'll try to find it.

Let's wait for Villu.
Cheers

PS: Villu, could you send me back the 2 specimens?

Thank you very much for your interesting explanation Paolo !

I attach one more pic.

Best regards.
Jose Ignacio

Nice photos, and wow, it looks strange..
Did anyone else react to the length of the 3rd antennal segment, and the odd look of the area around pit row on T-III? Or are those characters occuring somewhere else in the ignita group?

Yes, I also noticed that strange transverse depression in front of the pit row... I wonder what Paolo will find out about this wasp .

Greetings,
Henrik

Hi guys!

Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it!

Today I'm at home and I took few minutes, thinking about this chrysidids.
I would exclude any European species, it's possibly related to the Northern African fauna, even if collected in central Spain and not in Andalucia or South Portugal.
Few months ago David Baldock sent me some Portuguese Chrysidids, and between I found one male and one female of a new species for Europe, recently described by Linsenmaier (1999) for the Atlas mountains in Morocco. But it perfectly matches all the external and internal characters.

What is also very strange is the shape of the head: the malar spaces seems to be very long and possibly sub parallel; the TFC has also an unusual shape.
Basically it resembles a females of the cerastes group.
I have all the W Mediterranean species and subspecies, but no one has this strange punctuation of the abdomen and this very typical colour. As I always say, the colour can change, but the pattern colour never change (except very very few cases). And the thoracic colour of this species is too peculiar.

Please go on with your advices!
Cheers
Paolo

Hi, many thanks to all !

This time, while the insect drank, I was able to make quite shots. I put some more of them if you can see some additional detail. Anyway, I will try to find it this year again.

Regards.
Jose Ignacio

Hi, one additional thing that is quite visible now is the „knobby” appearance of the antenna, that is, there is a distally located knob on the dorsal surface of each antennal segment.