The Wharton Lab

Labrossyta Foerster, 1869: 202. Type species: Ichneumon scotopterus Gravenhorst, 1820. By subsequent inclusion by Thomson (1893: 2001).
Labrossytus Foerster: Unjustified emendation by Thomson, 1893: 2001. (Perkins 1962: 389).
Lapaphras Cameron, 1902: 428. Type species: Lapaphras nigriceps Cameron. Monobasic. Synonymized by Morley (1913).
Liotryphon Strobl 1903: 98, not Liotryphon Ashmead, 1900. Type species: Type species: Ichneumon scotopterus Gravenhorst, 1820, by monotypy. Synonymized by Townes (1971: 240).

In his classification of ichneumonid genera, Townes (1970: 67-74) included Labrossyta in Pionini but noted that it may not belong in Pionini because of the notched ovipositor.
Gupta (1987: 363) placed this genus in Perilissini, an action followed by Aubert (2000: 58).
The type species is often given as Labrossyta scotoptera (e.g. Yu et al. 2012), but sometimes as Labrossyta scotopterus (e.g. Aubert 2000).
The work by Thomson is frequently cited as 1894, but was given as 1893 by Yu and Horstmann (1997).

The following valid species were included by Yu et al. (2012).

Labrossyta castellana (Seyrig, 1928)
Labrossyta cinctipes (Tosquinet, 1896)
Labrossyta nigriceps (Cameron, 1902)
Labrossyta scotoptera (Gravenhorst, 1820)

As noted by Townes (1970), the body is smooth and densely setose throughout. Additionally, the occipital carina is absent middorsally and T1 has a deep basal pit. Known species have dark wings.

Clypeus (Figs 2, 3) with ventral margin bluntly rounded, usually thicker medially; ventral margin evenly convex; distinctly punctate over ventral 0.3-0.4; epistomal sulcus sharp and distinctly impressed throughout; clypeus in profile weakly but distinctly protruding. Malar space distinct, at least half basal width of mandible; malar sulcus absent. Mandible (Fig 3) densely setose basally; weakly narrowing distally; dorsal tooth shorter and narrower than ventral tooth. Ocelli small, lateral ocellus shorter than distance between ocellus and eye. Maxillary palp shorter than head height; female and male antennae equal to or slightly shorter than body; first flagellomere with basal tyloid difficult to distinguish among dense setae. Hypostomal carina meeting occipital carina above base of mandible; occipital carina incomplete: absent middorsally. Head and mesosoma densely setose. Dorsal end of epicnemial carina distant from anterior margin of mesopleuron by about width of first flagellomere. Notaulus short but distinctly impressed basally, barely extending beyond basal declivity, not extending posterior to level of tegula. U-shaped groove between propodeum and metanotum present, but usually difficult to see in lateral view because of dense covering of setae; pleural carina complete, well-developed; propodeal carinae otherwise apparently absent in material examined but propodeum densely setose and therefore difficult to discern. Apical margin of mid tibia expanded into a distinct tooth similar to that of fore leg in both sexes; apical comb on posterior side of hind tibia absent; posterior hind tibial spur at least 7x longer than maximum width at base; tarsal claws simple. Fore wing areolet present, well-developed and nearly rectangular in the five specimens examined; Rs+2r arising from basal third of stigma. Hind wing with first abscissa of CU1 distinctly longer than 1cu-a. T1 relatively short, broadening gradually from base to apex, about 1.3-1.4 x longer than apical width; dorsal carinae weakly developed, broadly rounded, not extending posteriorad spiracle; basal depression at dorsal tendon attachment very deep; dorsal-lateral carina absent; glymma (Fig 7) deep, basal, extending medially into basal depression of dorsal tendon attachment. on each side meeting on the midline posterior to dorsal tendon attachment. T2 thyridium absent; laterotergites of T2 and T3 separated by creases. Ovipositor weakly down-turned, with very deep, broad, subapical notch, with portion distad notch small; ovipositor sheath straight, bluntly rounded apically. Male parameres broadly triangular, never attenuate posteriorly; aedeagus simple.

In his generic revision, Townes (1970 states that the propodeum is smooth or with longitudinal carinae more or less complete.

This genus is only known from the Old World, with species from Africa and northern India (Townes 1970; Aubert 2000). Portions of the above description are based on specimens from Kenya.

This work would not have been possible without the groundwork provided by Ian Gauld’s study of the Australian and Costa Rican faunas, and we are particularly grateful for his assistance in many aspects of this study. We also thank David Wahl of the American Entomological Institute and Andy Bennett of the Canadian National Collection for extended loans of the material used for this study and Gavin Broad (The Natural History Museum, London) for useful exchanges concerning Perilissini. Matt Yoder provided considerable assistance with databasing issues, and our use of PURLs (http://purl.oclc.org) in this regard follows the example of their use in publications by Norm Johnson. Heather Cummins, Andrea Walker, Patricia Mullins, Caitlin Nessner, Amanda Ladigo, and Cheryl Hyde graciously assisted with image processing, formatting, and literature retrieval. This study was supported by the National Science Foundation’s PEET program under Grant No. DEB 0328922 and associated REU supplement #s DEB 0723663, 0923134, and 1026618. Page last updated January, 2015.

This material is based upon work at Texas A&M University supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DEB 0328922 with REU supplements DEB 0723663, 0923134, and 1026618. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.