The Wharton Lab

Physotarsus truncatus Zhaurova, 2009: 9-10, 47-49. Holotype male, AEIC

Lateral ocelli separated by 1.2-1.5X their widest diameter from each other and about twice their widest diameter from eye margin. Antenna with 36-38 flagellomeres. Pronotum glabrous medially around and below lateral groove, punctate anterolaterally and dorsolaterally. Mesoscutum shiny, very sparsely punctate on anterior 0.4. T1 about 1.7-1.9X as long as broad. Head yellow with black stripe on vertex and frons; occiput black. Mesosoma largely black laterally, mesoscutum largely black with irregular yellow spot medially (Fig. 2), mesosoma otherwise largely yellow dorsally. T1 yellow basally with a black spot laterally on each side covering posterior 0.5–0.7; remaining tergites mostly orange to light brown. Hind femur, tibia, tarsomeres and pretarsus uniformly orange. Fore wing entirely hyaline.

Physotarsus truncatus is one of several species with a black and yellow mesosoma, distinctly punctate mesopleuron, and a sparsely to impunctate mesoscutum. It is nearly identical to P. cordatus Zhaurova and P. emarginatus Zhaurova, but the mesoscutum and mesopleuron are more extensively black in P. truncatus. This species is nearly identical to P. cordatus, with differences in the male subgenital plate and minor differences in color. Since primary differences are associated with the male, the sole male of P. truncatus was chosen as holotype. Both species were collected from the same locality in central Texas.

Known only from central Texas.

Hosts unknown.

Material Examined. Holotype male (AEIC, Type No. 3861): [USA, Texas] first line of data label: “Fredericksburg” second line: “V.7.1988 Tex.” third line: “H. & M. Townes”. Paratypes: 10 females, same data as holotype except dates ranging 30.iv–v.19.1988 (AEIC, TAMU).

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.