Opiostomus Fischer, 1971

Taxonomic History / Nomenclature
Opiostomus Fischer, 1971: 389. Type species: Opius kovacsi Fischer, 1963: 206-208 (monobasic).

Type locality of type species: Ethiopia, Vall. Yerrei; type in National Museum of Natural History, Budapest.

Initially proposed as a subgenus of Opius (Fischer 1971); treated as a valid genus by van Achterberg (in Belokobylskij et al. 2003) and Li et al. (2013).

Diagnosis and Relationships
Opiostomus was initially characterized as follows: mesoscutal midpit present (Fig. 5), precoxal sulcus sculptured (Fig. 6), labrum concealed (Fig. 2), and mandible with basal tooth or lobe ventrally (Fig. 3). However, Li et al. (2013) redefined Opiostomus slightly and characterized it by the presence of a dorsope on T1 (Figs 7, 9), labrum concealed or nearly so, notauli absent posteriorly (Fig. 5), and mandible with a distinct basal tooth or lobe ventrally.

The images are of a specimen from Kenya that fits the original description of kovacsi.

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1. Opius near kovacsi habit...
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2. Opius near kovacsi face...
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3. Opius near kovacsi mandi...
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4. Opius near kovacsi head ...
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5. Opius near kovacsi head ...
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6. Opius near kovacsi mesos...
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7. Opius near kovacsi propo...
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8. Opius near kovacsi T1...
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9. Opius near kovacsi T1 l...
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10. Opius near kovacsi wings...
 
Distribution
No referenced distribution records have been added to the database for this OTU.
Map

There are no specimens currently determined for this OTU, or those specimens determined for this OTU are not yet mappable.

Acknowledgements
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 July, 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.