Sycophila, Walker, 1871

Pujade-Villar, Juli, Savall-Roig, Gabriel, Equihua-Martínez, Armando, Estrada-Venegas, Edith G., Barrera-Ruiz, Uriel M., Cibrián-Tovar, David, Vera-Ortiz, Alexis, Silvia Romero-Rangel, Cuesta-Porta, Víctor, Cazorla-Vila, Júlia & Melika, George, 2024, Description of Neuroandricus a new genus of gall wasp (Hym.: Cynipidae) and a new species of associated Sycophila (Hym.: Eurytomidae), Zootaxa 5538 (2), pp. 177-193 : 185-187

Study of the Sycophila emerging from Neuroandricus galls

Balduf (1932) distinguished short-spotted species of Sycophila based on chromatic characteristics, categorizing them into two major groups: species that are predominantly black (except for yellow areas on the lateral corners of the pronotum) and species that are completely yellow/amber or exhibit extensive yellow areas on the mesosoma. However, this classification presented a significant degree of ambiguity. Recently, Zhang et al. (2022) suggested that females of the genus display diagnostic coloration patterns, whereas males exhibit greater chromatic plasticity within the same species, thus preventing reliable species differentiation based on coloration alone. In contrast, in European species, coloration in Sycophila emerging from oak galls is highly variable, with a correlation between wing spot length and coloration ( Nieves-Aldrey 1984).

Given these challenges, we examined the type specimens of both dark and yellow American species and compared them with the species described herein. Our study concludes that American Sycophila species exhibit three distinct color patterns that are not associated with the wing spot model:

- Predominantly black body coloration ( Fig. 5 a-g), sometimes with restricted yellow areas on the lower half of the face, the lateral regions of the pronotum (occasionally medial dorsal area partially yellow), the mesoscutum (following the lower margin of the notauli), and/or the ventral region of the metasoma.

- Body coloration predominantly yellow or amber, with dorsal black bands either faintly present or entirely absent ( Fig. 5 h-j)

- Body coloration partially yellow and partially black (yellow more or less extending over the face in frontal view, the gena, pronotum, mesoscutum, and sometimes the mesopleuron, metapleuron, and ventrally on the metasoma) ( Fig. 5 k-m)

The chromatic differences were linked to differences between the sculptural patterns of these three chromatic groups. These conclusions were drawn from the examination of type material of American Sycophila species with short-spotted wings and specimens collected in Mexico. Among the type material studied, all the species exhibit exclusively one of those color patterns. The group of predominantly black species included S. batatoides f, S. florida , S. gracilis , S. marylandica , S. wiltzae , and the new species S. baldufi sp. nov. The predominantly yellow species group included S. catesbaei , S. dorsalis , S. pezomachoides , S. pomiformis , and S. subimmaculata . The intermediate pattern was determined for the species S. foliatae , S. quercilanae , S. quinqueseptae . Hence, predominantly black species, such as S. baldufi sp. nov., cannot be considered chromatic variants of the yellow species. We also examinied the pictures provided by Zhang et al. (2022) depicting the great variability, and the new species does not match with any of them.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Differentiation of the three color patterns in Sycophila: (a-g) predominantly black, (h-j) predominantly yellow, and (k-m) intermediate or yellow with more extensive black markings.