Platygaster eryngii Kieffer, 1916: 583

Notton, David G., 2010, A catalogue of the types of Platygastridae (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea) at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, with brief notes on the history of the collection, Zootaxa 2358, pp. 1-24 : 13

Platygaster eryngii Kieffer, 1916: 583 .

Syntypes ♀(♀); 3; southern France & Italy (lost).

Remarks. A number of specimens were found over the name ‘ Platygaster eryngii ’ in the collection of the MNHN, however there is no firm evidence any of them were seen by Kieffer, as none of them bears Kieffer’s label, nor did he mention any collector names in his description. Also it is probable that none of them is from the type localities, southern France and Italy, so they are not considered syntypic. These are: 1) fourteen specimens from J.-E. Giraud’s collection, some of which were labelled as ‘ Platygaster eryngii Giraud’ or ‘ Platygaster eryngii m[ihi]’: these have no locality data, but it is likely that Giraud reared them in Austria when rearing the host midge Lasioptera eryngii (Vallot, 1829) ( Giraud 1861) ; 2) one specimen from J. de Gaulle’s collection labelled ‘ Platygaster eringii [sic] Giraud’ without locality data, but probably from northern France like most of de Gaulle’s collection; and 3) one specimen from Leon Fairmaire’s collection standing over the name ‘ Platygaster eringii ’, which is from Bar–sur–Seine in l’Aube, in northern France. Although Giraud coined the name Platygaster eryngii , which appears as a nomen nudem in Giraud (1877), he never published a description and the name only became valid when published by Kieffer. It is not known whether Kieffer reused Giraud’s name or chose the same name by coincidence, whatever the case, it appears that Giraud’s and Kieffer’s species are the same. While the specimens in the MNHN appear not to be syntypic, they agree well with Kieffer’s description and since Kieffer’s types have not been located, they may be useful in the interpretation of Kieffer’s species, or possibly for the designation of a neotype.