Petilium Townes, 1970
Petilium palliventre Townes, 1970
Petilium tibiale Townes, 1970
The following label data are given by Townes (1970) for the type series of Petilium tibiale:
Holotype: female, Lafuna Amarga, Natales, Magallanes, Chile, Dec. 14 to 21, 1960, Luis Pena (AEI).
Paratypes:
3 Males, same data as type (AEI).
2 Males, Rubens, Punta Arenas, Magallanes, Chile, Dec. 13, 1950, Luis Pena (AEI).
Male, Lago Frio, Cayhaique, Magallanes, Chile, Dec. 11, 1960, T. Cekalovick (AEI).
Male, La Pensula, Magallanes, Chile, Dec. 11, 1960, T. Cekalovick (AEI).
4 Females, Las Cabras, 1500m., Chile, Jan 6 to 31, 1963, Luis Pena (AEI).
Female, Lago Futalaufquen, Chile, Jan. 24, 1968, L. and J, Strange (AEI).
Female, Pichinahuel, Cordillera Nahuelbuta, Arauco, Chile, Jan. 1 to 10, 1959, Luis Pena (CNC).
The combination of a short, broad fore wing stigma, relatively slender mandibles with long ventral tooth, relatively long, slender, straight ovipositor, long, relatively slender T1, and epicnemial carina not extending to anterior margin of mesopleuron serve to differentiate Petilium from other pionines. Specifically, the shape of the mandible separates tibiale from Syntactus and other genera that lack a glymma, while the slender T1 and position of the epicnemial carina separates Petilium from other pionine genera. The huge, u-shaped groove laterally between propodeum and metathorax and the slender ovipositor solidify the inclusion of Petilium in Pionini as the latter is currently characterized.
This description is based largely on specimens of P. tibiale and _P. palliventre in the Texas A&M University Collection and is expanded from the original description given by Townes (1970), who also included Petilium in a key to genera of Pionini.
There are no specimens currently determined for this OTU, or those specimens determined for this OTU are not yet mappable.
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 the following curators for extended loans of the material used for this study: David Wahl of the American Entomological Institute and Andy Bennett of the Canadian National Collection. We also thank David Wahl for useful feedback throughout our study and especially John Heraty for collecting fresh specimens from Chile. 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 0616851, 0723663, 0923134, and 1026618.
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 and 0923134. 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.