The Wharton Lab

Allophlebus Fischer, 1972: 32, 66. Type species: Opius singularis Wesmael, 1835 (monobasic and original designation).

Type locality of type species: Belgium, Brussels; primarly type in Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels.

The type species was interpreted differently by Fischer (1972: 71, 424-427) and van Achterberg (1997: 26, 77, 87), and my examination of Wesmael’s type supports the synonymies given by van Achterberg (1997).

Originally described as a subgenus of Opius by Fischer (1972); subsequently treated as a synonym of Opius s.s. by Li et al. (2013) and as a synonym of Phaedrotoma by Tobias (1998).

Key features of Allophelbus include the absence of both a mesoscutal midpit (Figs 7-9) and a precoxal sulcus (Fig. 10). The mandible has a very distinct basal tooth or lobe ventrally (Fig. 4) and the labrum is broadly exposed below the short, wide, ventrally truncate clypeus (Figs 4, 5). The basal lobe of the mandible, with apical portion narrow and parallel-sided, is characteristic of Opius s.s. and this shared feature is the rationale for inclusion of Allophlebus as a synonym of Opius by Li et al. (2013). The major difference between the type species of Opius and the type species of Allophlebus is the concealed (Opius) vs broadly exposed (Allophlebus) labrum. The type species of Allophlebus also has deep, diverging sulci extending posteriorly from the base of T2 (Fig. 11), unsculptured T2 and T3 (Figs. 11, 12), relatively unsculptured propodeum (Figs 8-12), and venation as in Figs 1 and 2. Fischer (1972, 1972) used wing venation characteristics to separate Allophelbus from other subgenera, but the primarily characteristic (relative lengths of fore wing 2RS and 3RSa) is slightly different in singularis sensu Fischer (1972) and singularis sensu van Achterberg (1977) though with 3RSa roughly twice the length of 2RS in both.

The images here are of specimens from the Stelfox collection, collected in Ireland, and originally determined as Opius clarus by Stelfox. They match the type material of singularis in Wesmael’s collection.

This page was assembled by Bob Wharton and Danielle Restuccia. It is part of a review of the genera of World Opiinae, conducted at Texas A&M University. We are particularly grateful to Xanthe Shirley, Andrew Ly, Patricia Mullins, Trent Hawkins, Lauren Ward, Cheryl Hyde, Karl Roeder, and Andrea Walker, who did nearly all of the imaging (together with Danielle) for this project. Matt Yoder and Istvan Miko provided guidance on databasing issues associated with our use of mx and HAO respectively. This project would not have been possible without the kindness of many curators at museums throughout the world who gave generously of their time to Bob Wharton and his students. In particular, I thank Henry Townes (deceased) and David Wahl (American Entomological Institute, Gainesville), Gordon Nishida (Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu), Norm Penny, and Bob Zuparko (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco), Bill Mason (deceased), Mike Sharkey, Andrew Bennett, and Henri Goulet (Canadian National Collection, Ottawa), Paul Dessart (deceased) (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels), Marc De Meyer (Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren), Axel Bachmann (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Natureles, Buenos Aires), Eberhard Koenigsmann (deceased) and Frank Koch (Museum fuer Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin), J. Casevitz Weulersse and Claire Villemant (Museum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris), James O’Connor (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin), Jenö Papp (National Museum of Natural History, Budapest), Kees van Achterberg (National Museum of Natural History, Leiden), Max Fischer, Herb Zettel, and Dominique Zimmermann (Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien), Per Persson and Lars-Åke Janzon (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm), Ermenegildo Tremblay (Silvestri Collection, Portici), Erasmus Haeselbarth (Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, Munich), Tom Huddleston and Gavin Broad (The Natural History Museum, London), Paul Marsh and Robert Kula (USDA Systematic Research Laboratory and US National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C.), Vladimir Tobias (deceased) and Sergey Belokobylskij (Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg), and Roy Danielsson (Zoological Institute, Department of Systematics, Lund) for facilitating loans and general assistance associated with examination of holotypes and other material in their care. This work was supported largely by NSF/PEET DEB 0328922 and 0949027, with REU supplements 0723663, 1026618, 1213790, and 1313933 (to Wharton). Page last updated June, 2015. The material on this page is freely available, but should be acknowledged if used elsewhere.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DEB 9300517, DEB (PEET) 9712543, DEB (PEET) 0328922 with REU supplements 0723663 and 1026618 and DEB 0949027 with REU supplements 1213790 and 1313933. 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.