New records for the Indian cuckoo wasp fauna (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae) with description of two new species and remarks on types of Smith and Cameron

Abstract

ABSTRACTA recent examination of type specimens and unidentified Indian cuckoo wasps deposited at the Natural History Museum (London) and at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History led to the discovery of: two new Indian species, Chrysis parviocula sp. n. (amneris species group) and Elampus bicolor sp. n.; a new synonymy, Chrysis quaerita Nurse, 1902 syn. n. of Chrysis dissimilis Dahlbom, 1854; an unnecessary replacement name, Hedychridium mocsaryi Rosa, 2021 for Hedychridium virescens (Mocsáry, 1914); and a misidentification of Chrysis obscura Smith, 1860 which is now excluded from the Indian fauna. Chrysis perfecta Cameron, 1897 is transferred to the viridissima group. New distributional records are given for Chrysis arkadyi Rosa et al. 2021, Chrysis bayadera du Buysson, 1896, Chrysis musa Semenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1954 and Praestochrysis palawanensis (Mocsáry, 1899). Eighteen types of Indian and Oriental species are illustrated for the first time. Types of six Oriental and Australian species described by Cameron, Smith, and Gray are illustrated and their status and depositories discussed. A lectotype is designated for Chrysis festina Smith, 1874. Type material of Stilbum princeps (Gray, 1832) is rediscovered 190 years after its description.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FE496B54-40BB-4049-BA71-058BEE5553AEKEYWORDS: ChrysidinaeElampinitaxonomynew synonymy AcknowledgementsI thank the Royal Entomological Society for supporting my research at the Natural History Museum of London and the Museum of Natural History of Oxford; Andrew Polaszek (NHMUK) for his logistical support and for his continuous help during my research; Gavin Broad (NHMUK) for the permission to enter the collection, study, and photograph type specimens; Joseph Monks (NHMUK) for the technical support in collections and for taking pictures when needed; James Hogan (OUMUK) for his help looking for types and other material in the collections and for taking pictures of types for my publications. Thanks to Bogdan Wiśniowski (University of Rzeszów, Poland) and Thomas J. Wood (University of Mons, Belgium) for their opinions on the manuscripts. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers, who greatly contributed to a better stylistic form of the manuscript, and to John and Anna Bateman (Milton Keynes, UK) for their help during my stay in England.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Additional informationFundingThe author reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.