Genus Polygnotus Förster, 1856

(junior synonym of Platygaster Latreille, 1809)

Polygnotus Förster, 1856: 108, 115, 116. Type species Platygaster striolatus Nees, 1834 by monotypy and original designation. Junior synonym of Platygaster Latreille, 1809 – Fouts 1920: 67.

Remarks

Polygnotus was described as having a wide head with strong sculpture, a cushion-shaped mesoscutellum, and a mesoscutal lamella. It resembles Isocybus in size and sculpture, but lacks the tuft of setae on the mesoscutellum. Fouts (1920) considered it a junior synonym of Platygaster . The type species is Platygaster striolata Nees, 1834, the type specimen of which is unknown. The NHMW includes an original exemplar of Pl. striolata, which bears a label consistent with Nees’s style, as well as the holotype of Po. signatus Förster, 1861 . Based on the authenticity of the label, we here designate a neotype for Platygaster striolata Nees, 1834 .

The NHMW also houses original exemplars of Platygaster orus Walker, 1835 (type specimen in NHMUK), which was considered by Förster to belong to Polygnotus but was never formally transferred.