A journey through the history of the British Chrysididae (Hymenoptera): unexpected taxonomic problems, new records and description of a new species

ABSTRACT

An overview on the history of the British cuckoo wasps is presented. Some very old publications dealing with this fauna have fallen into oblivion, along with the description of some taxa. In the present paper I discuss these taxa and other species observed in museum collections. The species formerly identified as Cleptes semicyaneus Tournier, 1879 was found in England and Scotland. This species was misidentified in the literature and it is here described as Cleptes britannicorum Rosa, sp. n. Three new synonymies are proposed: Chrysis politus Harris, 1776 syn. n. of Omalus aeneus (Fabricius, 1787); Chrysis curax Harris, 1776 syn. n. of Trichrysis cyanea (Linnaeus, 1758); Chrysis variegata Curtis, 1837 nec Olivier, 1790 syn. n. of Chrysis leachii Shuckard, 1837. The lectotype of Chrysis lucidula Fabricius, 1775 (type species of the genus Hedychrum Latreille, 1802) is designated. Chrysis aenea Fabricius, 1787 is considered a nomen protectum and Chrysis politus Harris, 1776 a nomen oblitum. A discussion on nomina nuda and nomina dubia found in historical publications is given. In the context of British fauna, Chrysis rutilans Olivier, 1790 is considered regionally extinct, and the presence of Chrysis mediadentata Linsenmaier, 1951 and Pseudomalus triangulifer (Abeille de Perrin, 1877) in England is reported for the first time. The following species recently added to the British fauna are considered native because they were present in the UK in the nineteenth century and can be traced in historical collections: Elampus konowi (du Buysson, 1892); Hedychridium caputaureum (Trautmann and Trautmann, 1919); C. corusca Valkeila, 1971; C. schencki Linsenmaier, 1968; C. terminata Dahlbom, 1854; and Chrysis mediadentata Linsenmaier, 1951. It is also confirmed, based on historical data, that Holopyga generosa (Förster, 1853) and Hedychrum nobile (Scopoli, 1763) have recently expanded their distributional limits, making their presence in England evident only in the last few decades.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1273ADDE-3EFF-4CA5-8C4E-A2F5FFDBB6E7

KEYWORDS:

• Cuckoo wasps
• taxonomy
• nomenclature
• British Isles
• new synonymy

Acknowledgements

I thank Andrew Polaszek for his kind invitiation to NHMUK to revise the British chrysidids, his logistical and scientifical support during my stay and the revision history of the cases. I also thank Gavin Broad (NHM) for access to the collection and to study and photograph type specimens; Joseph Monks (NHM) for technical support in collections and for taking pictures when needed; Rosie Jones (NHM) for help in finding literature; Max Barclay (NHM) for help in recognition of handwritten labels. James Hogan and Darren Mann (OUMNH) are thanked for their help looking for types and other material in the collections, and for taking pictures of types for PR publications and Dale’s diary. I thank Lars Vilhelmsen (Copenhagen) for granting access to the Fabricius chrysidid collection; Bernard Landry (Geneva) for sending the type of Cleptes semicyaneus Tournier; and Denis Brothers (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) and Maurizio Pavesi (Museo di Storia Naturale, Milan, Italy) for nomenclature comments. I thank Thomas Wood (Mons, Belgium) for reviewing the manuscript and Denis Michez (University of Mons) for supervising PR research on Chrysididae. I also thank, for their collaboration in finding and sending specimens of Cleptes britannicorum and Cl. semicyaneus, or for providing useful information on these species: Frederique Bakker (Leiden, The Netherlands), John T. Burn (Durham, UK), Christian Cocquempot (Montférrier-sur-Lez, France), Jeroen de Rond (Lelystad, The Netherlands), Wouter Dekoninck and Yvonnick Gerard (Brussels, Belgium), Romain Le Divelec (Mons, Belgium), Oliver Niehuis (Freiburg, Germany), Juho Paukkunen (Helsinki, Finland), Nico Schneider (Luxembourg), Villu Soon (Tartu, Estonia), Zoltán Vas (Budapest, Hungary), and Bogdan Wiśniowski (Rzeszów, Poland). I also thank Mike Edwards (BWARS) and Clare Boyes (BWARS) for providing specimens for barcoding and other materials from their collection. I also thank BWARS for the invitation to the AGM held in Newcastle in 2023. Finally, I thank The Royal Entomological Society for supporting my research at the Natural History Museum, London, and the Museum of Natural History of Oxford.

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Funding

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