The Wharton Lab

Physotarsus luteus Zhaurova, 2009: 9-10, 34-36. Holotype female UNAM.

Lateral ocelli separated by 1.0X their widest diameter from each other, and about 1.8X their widest diameter from eye margin. Antennae with 28 flagellomeres. Pronotum completely glabrous, shiny. Mesoscutum shiny, very sparsely punctate on anterior 0.3. T1 about twice as long as broad. Head yellow, with face light brownish medially in holotype. Mesosoma entirely yellow, darker on mesoscutum and sometimes ventrally. Metasoma with T1 yellow, remaining tergites mostly dark yellow with pale yellow apical trim. Hind femur and tibia largely yellow to light orange, tarsomeres dark brown. Fore wing hyaline with faint infumate spot apically.

Physotarsus luteus has a distinctive combination of a pale body and weakly punctate head and mesothorax. It is most similar to P. bonillai Gauld in coloration; both species are exceptionally pale with the antenna abruptly transitioning from orange proximally to dark brown apically. Physotarsus bonillai lacks the weak punctation on the head and mesoscutum, has a distinctly angulate central lobe protruding from the ventral margin of the clypeus, and has a broader petiole. The fore wing is almost completely hyaline in P. luteus.

Mexico.

Hosts unknown.

Material Examined. Holotype female (UNAM): [MEXICO] first line of data label: “MEXICO: Yucatan” second line: “Merida, Xmatkuil”, third line: “25 May 1996” fourth line: “R. Wharton”. Paratype: 1 female, MEXICO, Jalisco, Estacion Biologica Chamela, 4–5.vii.1993 (R Wharton & M Sharkey) (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 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.