Chrysis (oculata group) Female

[Alex]

I'm sure this is a species in the oculata group, somewhere close to the species Chrysis stilboides, but if its truly this or another I'm not sure. Linsenmaier 1959 mentions that there are still "Mehrere Spezies (hier nicht alle aufgeführt)" taxa in the stilboides group in the subgenera Pyria, but from what I can see he does not mention any of them in his later works?

Dont know if much more can be said from just pictures, but I have not seen any with diagnostic characters for this species group before so I might as well post them. And its a beautiful big beast of a Chrysis

Label:
Ethiopia: Arsi, Assella
1-31.I.1989, 2400m
leg. S. Persson

/Alex

[Euchroeus]

Hi Alex,

I think it's a female of Chrysis oxyacantha Mocsary, 1913, described from Eritrea.
The face is different, beeing larger (l/w) with longer malar spaces (in lateral view) and different TFC.
I'm adding the picture of the type of C. stilboides from the Spinola collection.

Do you have my paper on African chrysidids?

Paolo

[Alex]

Terrific stuff! Pictures of type specimens are so good to have, many thanks! (I should really start taking pictures of the types housed at the Lund Museum)
I agree with you, it does not look like stilboides, although my lateral picture is a bit obscured by the wings it gives a different habitus feeling than your lateral picture, and even more so under the microscope. Would never have guessed without the pictures. Thanks!

I do not have your article, sounds very usefull

EDIT: Realised I have Mocsary's 1913 article, but I dont understand latin good enough to get any useable information from his article (especially as he does not compare it to any other species). The little I got from it seems to apply to both stilboides and oxyacantha - except the mention of black maculation at the hind ocelli, which agrees with my specimen, but not with stilboides, so thats something at least.