The Wharton Lab

Physotarsus cordatus Zhaurova, 2009: 9-10, 19-21. Holotype male, AEIC.

Lateral ocelli separated by 1.3X their widest diameter from each other and about 2.2X their widest diameter from eye margin. Antennae with 36-38 flagellomeres. Pronotum glabrous medially around and below lateral groove, punctate anterolaterally. Mesoscutum shiny, sparsely punctate on anterior 0.4. T1 about twice as long as broad. Head yellow with black median stripe on vertex and usually frons; occiput black. Mesosoma black and yellowish dorsally (Fig. 3). T1 yellow basally with black spot laterally on each side between spiracle and posterior margin; metasoma otherwise uniformly orange. Hind femur, tibia, and tarsomeres uniformly orange. Fore wing entirely hyaline.

Physotarsus cordatus is one of several species with a black and yellow mesosoma and a distinctly punctate mesopleuron. It differs from nearly all of these by the absence of dark brown to black markings on T2-6, which are uniformly orange in P. cordatus. Physotarsus truncatus Zhaurova is nearly identical but is darker, most notably on the mesoscutum which lacks the yellowish notaular lines of P. cordatus.

Known only from Nebraska and central Texas, USA.

Hosts unknown.

Material Examined. Holotype male (AEIC, Type No. 3850): [USA, Nebraska] first line of data label: “Valentine Refuge” second line: “VI.4. 72 Nebraska” third line: “H. & M. Townes”. Paratypes: 1 female, 5 males, 2 sex unknown, same data as holotype except dates ranging 6–8.vi.1972 (AEIC, TAMU); 1 male, [USA], Texas, Fredricksburg, 5.v.1988 (H&M Townes) (AEIC).

This page was assembled by Bob Wharton and Kira Zhaurova, and is part of a revision of the genus Physotarsus (Zhaurova and Wharton 2009). Material examined for this revision was borrowed from the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, the American Entomological Institute, Gainesville (AEIC), The Natural History Museum, London, the U. S. National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C., and INBio, Costa Rica. We are particularly grateful to David Wahl for the extended loan of the specimens listed above, as well as to Matt Yoder for the electronic interface and to Heather Cummins and Mika Cameron for assistance with literature and figures. We would also like to acknowledge the kind assistance of Ian Gauld, David Wahl, Andrew Bennett, and Gavin Broad for information exchange about ichneumonids during the course of this work. Our use of PURLs (http://purl.oclc.org) for the web interface follows the example of their use in publications by Norm Johnson. The work was conducted at Texas A&M University and supported by NSF/PEET grant no. DEB 0328922 and associated REU supplement # 0723663. Page last updated October 2010.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DEB 0328922 with REU supplement DEB 0723663.
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.