Discovery of Xestophanopsis gen. n. from China and taxonomic revision of two species misplaced in Ceroptres Hartig, 1840 (Hymenoptera, Cynipoidea: Cynipidae)

Abstract

In the present paper, we describe Xestophanopsis Pujade-Villar & Wang gen. n. to the tribe Diastrophini based on Ceroptres distinctus Wang, Liu & Chen, 2012 and transfer Ceroptres distinctus Wang, Liu & Chen, 2012 to Periclistus Foerster, 1869 as Periclistus setosus (Wang, Liu & Chen, 2012) comb. n. In addition, we report the first record of Periclistus capillatus Kovalev, 1968 from China, along with the first report and description of the male. Finally, we provide a taxonomic key to all Eastern Palaearctic species of the genus Periclistus.

A new species of Periclistus Foerster, 1869 from China and review of the tribe Diastrophini (Hymenoptera, Cynipoidea, Cynipidae)

“…The genus Diastrophus is unique compared to the other genera of the tribe in having metasomal terga 2 and 3 free in female (Fig. 17), not fused as in the other genera of the tribe while Xestophanes differs from all other genera of the tribe by having a rather reduced basal lobe on tarsal claw, rather than a well-developed one (Melika 2006, Ritchie 1984, Pujade-Villar et al 2019. Xestophanes is further separated from Xestophanopsis by having eleven flagellomeres in female antenna, rather than having ten as in the latter (Pujade-Villar et al 2019).…”

“…Although P. smilacis Ashmead 1896 was reported to be reared from galls of Diastrophus smilacis Ashmead, 1896 in Florida, USA, which would also suggest that the species is associated with Smilax (Smilaceae), the record seemed to be incorrect (Burks 1979;Pujade-Villar et al 2016. The fifth genus, Xestophanopsis Pujade-Villar et Wang, 2019, recently described from China is apparently a gall maker associated with Rosaceae host (Pujade-Villar et al 2019), which needs to be confirmed with rearing data.…”

“…In addition, we also updated the taxonomic key to the species of Periclistus Foerster, 1869 from the Eastern Palearctic by Pujade-Villar et al (2019) and the Oriental region to include the new species and provided a key to the five currently recognized genera of the tribe Diastrophini to facilitate future work on the tribe.…”