Enicospilus aciculatus (Taschenberg, 1875)

Shimizu, So, Broad, Gavin R. & Maeto, Kaoru, 2020, Integrative taxonomy and analysis of species richness patterns of nocturnal Darwin wasps of the genus Enicospilus Stephens (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ophioninae) in Japan, ZooKeys 990, pp. 1-144 : 1

Enicospilus aciculatus (Taschenberg, 1875) Figure 10

Ophion aciculatus Taschenberg, 1875: 434; LCT ♀ from Java, designated by Townes et al. (1961: 269), FZLU, not examined.

Enicospilus malaitensis Brues, 1918: 117; HT ♂ from Solomon Island, MCZ, not examined; synonymised by Gauld and Mitchell (1981: 394).

Henicospilus okinawensis Matsumura and Uchida, 1926: 71; LCT ♀ from Ryûkyûs, designated by Townes et al. (1961: 285), SEHU, examined; synonymised by Gauld and Mitchell (1981: 394).

Henicospilus neddenveli Cheesman, 1936: 185; HT ♂ from Vanuatu, NHMUK, examined; synonymised by Gauld and Mitchell (1981: 394).

Enicospilus crucis Chiu, 1954: 70; HT ♀ from Taiwan, TARI, examined; synonymised by Gauld and Mitchell (1981: 394).

Specimens examined.

Total of 54 specimens (29♀♀24♂♂ and 1 unsexed): India (17♀♀5♂♂), Japan (8♀♀17♂♂ and 1 unsexed), Solomon Islands (2♀♀), Sri Lanka (1♀1♂), Taiwan (1♀), Vanuatu (1♂).

Type series: LCT ♀ of Henicospilus okinawensis Matsumura & Uchida, 1926, Okinawa, Ryûkyûs, JAPAN, 1925, S. Sakaguchi leg. (SEHU); HT ♀ of Enicospilus crucis Chiu, 1954, Jûjiro, TAIWAN, 26.IV.1931, T. Shiraki leg. (TARI); HT ♂ of Henicospilus neddenveli Cheesman, 1936, Malekula, New Hebrides [VANUATU], III.1930, L.E. Cheesman leg. (NHMUK, Type 3b.1242).

Distribution.

Australasian, Eastern Palaearctic, Oceanic and Oriental regions ( Yu et al. 2016).

JAPAN: [ Kyûshû] Fukuoka* and Kagoshima ( Momoi 1970; present study); [ Ryûkyûs] Kagoshima ( Uchida 1956; Momoi 1970; present study) and Okinawa ( Matsumura and Uchida 1926; Uchida 1928; present study). *New record. Enicospilus aciculatus is a predominantly (sub-)tropical species and rare in the cooler zone.

Bionomics.

Although this is one of the most common species in the Oriental region, there are no host records.

Differential diagnosis.

This species is morphologically relatively close to E. laqueatus and E. yonezawanus . However, E. aciculatus is rather easily distinguished from all other species of Japanese Enicospilus by the following combination of character states: mandible with diagonal setose groove, and upper mandibular tooth more than 2.0 × as long as lower (Fig. 10B, D ); central sclerite of fore wing fenestra moderately sized, ill-defined, very weakly pigmented, and positioned in anterodistal corner of fenestra (Fig. 10F ); and proximal angle of proximal sclerite of fore wing fenestra ca. 45° (Fig. 10F ). This species is morphologically stable but sometimes exhibits colour variation (i.e., usually the metasoma is entirely orange brown, but rarely the posterior segments are black).

Figures

Figure 10. Enicospilus aciculatus (Taschenberg, 1875) ♀ from Japan A habitus B head, frontal view C head, dorsal view D head, lateral view E mesosoma, lateral view F central part of fore wing.