Chrysis obscura Smith, 1860

Rosa, Paolo, 2023, New records for the Indian cuckoo wasp fauna (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae) with description of two new species and remarks on types of Smith and Cameron, Journal of Natural History 57 (29 - 32), pp. 1396-1433 : 1422

Chrysis obscura Smith, 1860

( Figure 15A–15F )

Chrysis obscura Smith, 1860, p. 67 . Holotype ♀; Celebes: Makassar (OUMUK) (smaragdula group).

Material examined

1♀ [ Indonesia (Sulawesi)]: Mak . [= Makassar], Chrysis obscura Smith [ OUMUK].

Distribution

Indonesia (Sulawesi).

Remarks

Rosa et al. (2021a) listed Chrysis obscura Smith from India (West Bengal: Birbhum district) and Myanmar (Tenasserim, Tavoy, 12.[18]97, Bingham), based on two specimens deposited at the Naturhistoriches Museum in Vienna (Zimmermann collection) and at the Hungarian Natural History Museum (Budapest). The Indian specimen was identified by Zimmermann, while the Burmese one was identified by Bingham and Mocsáry; for this reason their identifications were considered reliable. Although it was not mentioned in that article, the specimens examined belong to the oculata group and not to the smaragdula group, as stated by Kimsey and Bohart ([1990] 1991), for the shortened first flagellomere and the dentate mesopleuron, among other characters.

The recent type examination of Chrysis obscura deposited at OUMUK ( Figure 15 ) confirmed that this taxon is a member of the smaragdula group, and that the Indian and Burmese specimens in Rosa et al. (2021a) were misidentified. At present, I am unable to reliably identify them, and they likely belong to an undescribed species. To my knowledge, the distribution range of Chrysis obscura should remain limited to Sulawesi ( Indonesia).

Figures

Figure 15. Chrysis obscura Smith, 1860, holotype ♀. A. Habitus, dorsal view. B. Habitus, lateral view. C. Head, frontal view. D. Metasoma, dorsal view. E. Mesosoma, postero-lateral view. F. Metasoma, ventral view. Scale bars: 1 mm.