Saphonecrus shirakashii ( Shinji, 1940 )

Lobato-Vila, Irene, Wang, Yiping, Melika, George, Guo, Rui, Ju, Xiaoxue & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2021, A Taxonomic Review of the Gall Wasp Genus Saphonecrus Dalla-Torre and Kieffer and other Oak Cynipid Inquilines (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) from Mainland China, with Updated Keys to Eastern Palaearctic and Oriental Species, Zoological Studies (Zool. Stud.) 60 (10), pp. 1-25 : 17-18

Saphonecrus shirakashii ( Shinji, 1940)

Andricus shirakashii Shinji, 1940 . Insect World 44: 290. Type material: presumably lost, according to Wachi et al. (2011b).

Ufo shirakashii Wachi et al. (2011b) . Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 104(4): 622.

Saphonecrus shirakashii Melika et al. (2012) . Zootaxa 3478: 156.

Saphonecrus tianmushanus Wang and Chen in Wang et al. (2010). Biologia 65(6): 1037. Type material: ZAFU. Synonymized by Pujade-Villar et al. (2017: 62).

Material examined (13 and 78): Deposited in ZAFU and UB with the following data: Guadun, Wuyi Mountain (Fujian), Ex unknown gall, unknown tree, 30.vii.2015, Jie Shen leg. (18 deposited in ZAFU); Tianmu Mountain (Zhejiang), 06.iv.2015, Jie Shen leg. (18 deposited in ZAFU); West Tianmu Mountain (Zhejiang), 02.vii.2000, Yun Ma leg. (18 deposited in ZAFU); Longtang Mountain (Zhejiang), Ex unknown gall, unknown tree, (22.iii.2013) 15.iv.2013 (13 and 18 deposited in UB); Baima Snow Mountain, Deqin (Yunnan), 3350–4290 m, Ex unknown gall, unknown tree, 21.viii.2009, Lixin Su leg. (18 deposited in UB); Tianmu Mountain (Zhejiang), Ex unknown gall, unknown tree, 11.v.1999, Mingshui Zao leg. (28 deposited in UB).

Diagnosis: Saphonecrus shirakashii belongs to a group of species ( S. naiquanlini , S. shanzhukui and S. shirokashicola ), characterized by the presence of the lateral pronotal carina and tarsal claws with a basal lobe. It differs from S. shirokashicola by the malar space being 0.6x as long as height of eye (0.5 in S. shirokashicola ), POL 3.0x as long as OOL (2.0 in S. shirokashicola ), notauli complete (incomplete, short, in S. shirokashicola ) and female syntergite dorsodistally incised (not incised in S. shirokashicola ). It differs from S. naiquanlini and S. shanzhukui by the transfacial distance being slightly longer than height of eye (as long as height of eye in these two species), frons alutaceous, shiny (delicately coriaceous in these two species), POL 3.0x as long as OOL (2.5 in these two species), and mesoscutum and mesoscutellum delicately coriaceous to alutaceous, mesoscutellum just somewhat wrinkled laterally and posteriorly (mesoscutum with weak interrupted transversal carinae or coriaceous with weak transversal elements not forming true carinae and mesoscutellum wrinkled in these two species). See also the key to species below.

Distribution: Japan (Honshū and Kyūshū islands) ( Wachi et al. 2011b; Melika et al. 2012); Taiwan (Nantou, Taichung and Hsinchu counties) ( Melika et al. 2012); mainland China (Fujian, Yunnan and Zhejiang Provinces) ( Wang et al. 2010; Pujade-Villar et al. 2017; this paper); South Korea ( Lobato-Vila et al. 2020d).

Biology: Reared from undescribed leaf galls on Q. glauca ( Wachi et al. 2011b; Melika et al. 2012), and from Neuroterus nr. hakonensis Ashmead on Q. glauca ( Lobato-Vila et al. 2020d) . The biology of the new material presented here is unknown.