The Wharton Lab

Physotarsus glabellus Zhaurova, 2009: 9-10, 30-31. Holotype female in AEIC.

Lateral ocelli separated by 0.4X their widest diameter from each other and about 1.8X their widest diameter from eye margin. Antennae with 22-23 flagellomeres. Pronotum and mesoscutum shiny, impunctate. T1 about 1.5X as long as broad. Clypeus light yellowish to white, face yellow to pale orange, frons varying from mostly pale orange to entirely brown; occiput orange. Mesosoma pale orange above, fading to nearly white ventrally (Fig. 2). Metasoma with T1 entirely brown, remaining tergites mostly brown with yellow apical margin. Fore and mid legs yellow. Most of hind femur and tibia yellow, with extreme apices brownish; tarsomeres dark brown to black. Fore wing hyaline, apex dusky.

Physotarsus glabellus is similar to several other smooth-bodied species that have hyaline wings with an infumate apical spot, most notably P. eliethi Gauld, P. jamesi Zhaurova, P. leucohypopygus Zhaurova, P. niveus Zhaurova, and P. oculatus Zhaurova. As in P. jamesi and to some extent P. eliethi the hind femur is entirely or almost entirely dark yellow to orange in P. glabellus. T1 is dark brown in P. glabellus but orange or mostly orange in P. jamesi and P. eliethi has the first flagellomere about 10X longer than wide.

Known only from Brazil.

Hosts unknown.

Material Examined. Holotype female (AEIC, Type No. 3855): [BRAZIL, Pernambuco] first line of data label: “Caruaru, Brazil” second line: “Apr. 1972 900 m.” third line: “M Alvarenga”. Paratype: 1female, same data as holotype.

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.