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Amphithectus opacus (Thomson)

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Cynipoidea; Family: Figitidae; Subfamily: Figitinae; Genus: Amphithectus)

Sarothrus opacus Thomson, 1862 [non Scytodes opacus Hartig, 1840). Lectotype in Lund (MZLU). Type locality: ?
Amblynotus opacus (Thomson, 1862) Kieffer, 1903.
Amblynotus microcerus Kieffer, 1903 [ n. n. to Sarothrus opacus Thomson] Synonymy by Mata-Casanova et al. 2018.
Melanips microcerus (Kieffer, 1903) Fergusson, 1986.

Setineria austriaca Tavares, 1928.
Amphithectus austriacus (Tavares, 1928) Forshage & Norlander, 2018. Synonymy by Mata-Casanova et al. 2018.
Amphithectus coriaceous Paretas-Martinez & Pujade-Villar, 2013. Synonymized with A. austriacus in Forshage & Norlander (2018).


Lectotype in Lund (MZLU). Photographs © Noel Mata-Casanova (University of Barcelona).


Specimens reared from Strobilomyia flies (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) feeding on seed inside a coniferous tree cone. Middle image showing mesosoma from a male specimen displaying dense, coriaceous microsculpture (with diffused light). Bottom image showing mesosoma of a female shiny specimen without dense microsculpture, reared together with the coriaceous male (light not diffused). Photographs © Mattias Forshage (Swedish Museum of Natural History).


Illustrations from the original description of Seitneria austriaca in Tavares (1928). A. male, habitus. B female, metasoma.


Female ovipositing between the scales of an immature spruce cone. Photograph © Olle Rosenberg.


Distribution

Palaearctic: Austria, Switzerland, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, China (Yunnan) (Forshage & Nordlander, 2018).

Biology

Parasitoid of Strobilomyia species (Anthomyiidae). Females oviposit in developing Larix or Picea cones (Forshage & Nordlander, 2018).

References

Forshage, M & Göran N. 2018. The identity of figitid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Figitidae) of anthomyiid flies in conifer cones. European Journal of Entomology 115: 104-111.

Mata-Casanova, N., Selfa, J., Pujade-Villar, J. 2018. The true identity of Amphithectus austriacus (Tavares, 1928): junior synonym of Amphithectus opacus (Thomson, 1862) n. comb. Butlletí de la Institució Catalana d'Histňria Natural 82: 137-139.

Credits

Photographs © Noel Mata-Casanova (University of Barcelona), or

Photographs © Mattias Forshage (Swedish Museum of Natural History), or

Photograph © Olle Rosenberg.


Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

 

Citation: van Noort, S. 2024. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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