Campocraspedon Uchida 1957

Klopfstein, Seraina, 2014, Revision of the Western Palaearctic Diplazontinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae), Zootaxa 3801 (1), pp. 1-143 : 30-31

Campocraspedon Uchida 1957

Type species. Campocraspedon satoi Uchida 1957

Diagnosis. Females can readily be distinguished by the dorsoventrally depressed metasoma with very strongly concave hind margins of the tergites, a combination unique among the Palaearctic genera. Campocraspedon shares with Daschia and Xestopelta a clypeus with a thick apical margin which is protruding when viewed from the side.

Face coriaceous and matt, without vertical impressions but with central area often clearly elevated; in females entirely black, in males entirely yellow or with a central black stripe. Clypeus with apical margin thick, clypeus thus convex and protruding when viewed in profile. Antenna with apical flagellomeres wider than long, without tyloids and without long setae. Mesoscutum with notauli comparatively long, reaching about one third of length of mesoscutum, sometimes shallow; yellow shoulder marks absent or small; mesoscutum and mesopleuron smooth and with small punctures, sometimes with some coriaceous sculpture; epicnemial carina sometimes indistinct or interrupted behind the fore coxae. Propodeum with carinae partly or fully reduced, enclosing only lateral areas or no areas at all but often rugose; propodeal spiracle inconspicuous; scutellum only carinate basally. Fore wing areolet absent; hind wing with 2–3 basal hamuli. Hind tibia white with a dark apex and subbasal spot in Campocraspedon annulitarsis , orange in Campocraspedon caudatus . Female metasoma dorsoventrally depressed and elongated, tergites 3 to 7 with hind margins concave, extending further back laterally than dorsally, more so in females but obvious also in males; tergites with subapical transverse impressions sometimes weakly indicated on first and second tergite. First tergite without median dorsal carinae. Second tergite with spiracle dorsal, above lateral fold, third tergite with spiracle below or behind the fold. Metasoma black. Ovipositor sheaths 0.3 times as long as hind tibia, not compressed, about circular in cross-section, fully enclosing ovipositor; basally smooth, apically with dense and conspicuous setae. Males with tergites 9 and 10 fused as a syntergum, sternite 9 about 1.5 times wider than long, emarginated apically, thus forming two lobes, their outer corner with an acute angle.

Phylogeny. The genus Campocraspedon belongs to the Diplazon genus group and is probably monophyletic, as retrieved in a recent molecular analysis including the two Western Palaearctic species. Morphologically, it is closest to Daschia , for which molecular data are still missing.

Distribution. Holarctic. Besides the two Western Palaearctic species, Campocraspedon includes the Eastern Palaearctic Campocraspedon elongatus Nakanishi and Campocraspedon satoid Uchida , and the Nearctic Campocraspedon foutsi (Cushman) and Campocraspedon truncatus Dasch.

Biology. Nothing is known about the biology of the species, but the peculiar shape of the female metasoma is probably an adaptation to reach hosts that live inside galls or similar structures.

Key to species

1. Hind tibia and first tarsomere white with apices dark. Female antenna usually with 18 flagellomeres. Male face entirely yellow and metasoma usually entirely black....................................... Campocraspedon annulitarsis (Hedwig)

- Hind tibia orange, apically dark. Female antenna usually with 17 flagellomeres, only rarely with 18. Male face yellow but often with a black median stripe arising from below antennal sockets, and with hind margins of tergites 2 to 4 often yellowmarked................................................................ Campocraspedon caudatus (Thomson)