The Wharton Lab

Physotarsus melipennis Zhaurova, 2009: 9-10, 38-39. Holotype female, AEIC.

In two of the paratypes, the occipital carina is complete or nearly so, though much weaker and somewhat decurved dorsally. No other New World Scolobatini have a complete occipital carina, and these specimens are considered aberrant in this regard though otherwise agreeing with the other specimens examined.

Lateral ocelli separated by 1.6X their widest diameter from each other, and about 2.8X their widest diameter from eye margin. Antenna with 33-36 flagellomeres. Pronotum sparsely to moderately punctate. Mesoscutum shiny, sparsely punctate on anterior 0.4. T1 about twice as long as broad. Head, mesosoma, and metasoma entirely orange. Antennae black dorsally, brown to light brown ventrally. Hind femur and most of tibia orange, tarsomeres black. Fore wing entirely fuscous.

This distinctively colored species superficially resembles P. maculipennis (Cresson) because of the dark wings and orange body, but is smaller, more heavily sculptured, and lacks the pale bands/spots on the wing.

Known only from southeastern Arizona, USA.

Hosts unknown.

Material Examined. Holotype female (AEIC, Type No. 3857): [USA, Arizona] first line of data label: “Portal, Ariz.” second line: “VIII.17.1974” third line: “H. & M. Townes”. Paratypes: 4 females, same data as holotype except dates ranging 13–30.viii.1974 (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.