Platygaster persicariae Kieffer, 1906 : 130

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 : 16

Platygaster persicariae Kieffer, 1906: 130 , fig. 10.

Current status. Platygaster persicariae

Syntypes Ƥ; 9 3, France, Paris, Hauts –de–Seine, Fontenay–aux–Roses (MNHN).

Labels. Ex Cec. periscariae/ sur Polyg/ amphibium/ éclosion mai–juin/ 1897; Polyg. sp. 3?/ déterminé à tord/ niger par/ Ashmead; Kieffer a décrit/ l’espèce sous la/ nom de:/ Platygaster / ornatus / 1906 [2 3 syntypes].

Ex Cecid./ periscariae/ sur Polygonum/ amphibium/ éclosion mai–juin/ 1897; Polygn. sp. 3?/ (déterminé à tord/ niger par/ Ashmead); Kieffer a décrit/ l’espèce sous la nom/ de:/ Platygaster / ornatus / 1906 [4 3 syntypes].

Ex Cecid. periscariae/ sur Polygonum/ amphibium/ éclosion/ mai–juin 1897; Polyg. sp.?/ Ƥ/ (dét. à tord/ niger par Ashmead/?) [Ƥ syntype].

Polygnotus niger Nees / (Ashm. det.)/ Eclos. Mai juin 1897 / Ex Cec. persicariae [3 3 syntypes, 3 nontype Synopeas sp.].

Remarks. Marchal (1900) originally referred material reared from Wachtliella persicariae (Linnaeus, 1767) (as Cecidomyia persicariae ) to Polygnotus niger (Nees, 1834) but Kieffer (1906) considered it did not belong to that species and described Marchal’s material as the new species Platygaster persicariae . Since Kieffer’s description of this species was based on Marchal’s material it might be expected that the types would be found either in Kieffer’s collection or Marchal’s collection. Four slides were found in Marchal’s collection, labelled as ‘ Polygnotus niger ’ and reared from ‘ Cecid. persicariae ’ which agree with Kieffer’s description and may be regarded as types. The syntypes of P. persicariae are mounted in microscope slides, in Canada balsalm, some of them in wooden slide holders, most of the cover slips and a few of the wasps are broken. Two of these slides were erroneously labelled by Marchal as described by Kieffer as Platygaster ornatus , however, the type material of P. ornata was reared from Dasineura ulmaria (Bremi, 1847) so they cannot be types of this species. Although Kieffer only gave the type locality of P. persicariae as ‘environs de Paris’, the details given by Marchal (1900) show this is most likely to have been Fontenay–aux–Roses. The effective publication date of P. persicariae can be regarded as 31.v.1906 since Marchal (1906) refers to Kieffer’s paper as having been published and Marchal’s paper has the imprint publication date 1.vi.1906.