Diakontschukia saussureae Melika 2006
Creators: name: Nastasi, Louis F.
name: Deans, Andrew R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Cynipidae
Diakontschukia
Diakontschukia saussureae

description: Diakontschukia saussureae (Diakontschuk, 2001)
Figs. 1–11
Phanacis saussureae Diakontschuk, 2001: 91.
Diakontschukia saussureae (Diakontschuk) Melika 2006: 83.
Material examined. 1 ♀ deposited at BIOUG — China: Shaanxi: Haopingsi Nature Reserve Station; 34.088, - 107.711; 15 June 2012; Zhaofu Yang coll.; BIOUG14419 -H03.
Redescription. Female (Fig. 17)—Body 3.2 mm in length (n = 1). Head more or less entirely yellowish brown; mesosoma entirely black; metasoma contrasting rufous. Antennae yellowish brown throughout. Legs yellowish brown; apical tarsomeres moderately infuscated relative to preceding leg segments.
Head (Figs 18–19). Subtrapezoidal in anterior view, much wider than tall; genae only slightly expanded posterior to compound eyes. Sculpture excluding facial radiating striae alutaceous to reticulate. POL:LOL:OOL: DLO approximately 15:7:11:5; POL conspicuously longer than OOL and slightly more than twice LOL. Compound eye in anterior view about 1.5× as long as malar space. Facial radiating striae narrow, relatively weakly impressed; incomplete, reaching only about halfway to compound eye. Clypeus trapezoidal, slightly projecting over mandibles ventrally; clypeo-pleurostomal lines strongly divergent ventrally.
Antenna (Figs 20–21). With 14 antennomeres; conspicuously shorter than body length. Conspicuous placodeal sensilla present on F2 and following flagellomeres. Pedicel much shorter than F1. F1 much longer than F2, 1.3× as long. F1 3.2× as long as wide. F2 2.3× as long as wide.
Mesosoma (Figs 22–25). Pronotum dorsomedial height slightly more than 1/3 lateral height; submedial pits effaced, apparent as a single transverse impression; pronotal plate incomplete, with lateral sutures ending long before reaching posterior pronotum; sculpture excluding pronotal plate alutaceous to reticulate, with some diffuse rugose sculpture present laterally. Mesopleuron mostly rugose-reticulate; with diffuse rugose sculpture anteroventrally but with stronger longitudinal rugose sculpture in posterior half. Mesopleural triangle conspicuously impressed, densely setose throughout. Mesoscutum reticulate with conspicuous longitudinal rugose sculpture throughout; with only sparse, scattered setae. Notauli very shallowly impressed; incomplete, indistinct in about anterior half of mesoscutum and barely perceptible posteriorly. Median mesoscutal impression absent. Mesoscutellum rugose-reticulate throughout. Mesoscutellar foveae subrectangular; short, occupying about anterior fifth of mesoscutellum; narrowly separated; posterior margins moderately well defined; with rugose-reticulate sculpture within margins; without a few setae within margins. Metapleuron rugose-reticulate with relatively dense pilosity throughout. Propodeal carinae conspicuous as pair of lateral carinae; more or less subparallel throughout, gently curved in ventral third.
Fore wing (Fig. 26). Setose throughout. Veins dark brown. Marginal cell entirely open; veins R1 and Rs terminating before reaching anterior wing margin; 2.6× as long as wide. Areolet present; relatively large and welldefined. Distal margin without conspicuous marginal setae.
Metasoma (Figs 17; 27). Subequal to length of mesosoma in lateral view; about 1.7× as long as wide. First tergite large and with conspicuous striate sculpture. Second tergite without conspicuous setose patch; with sparse micropunctation ventrally in posterior half.Third and following metasomal tergites with conspicuous micropunctation throughout.
Male–Unknown.
Remarks. The specimen we examined perfectly agrees with the species description given by Diakontschuk (2001) and the description of Diakontschukia given by Melika (2006). Some areas of the specimen are somewhat obscured by debris (e.g., Fig. 25), presumably salts that accumulated as a result of DNA extraction. Luckily, all major taxonomic characters are clearly visible on the specimen despite these minor obstructions. While the DNA barcode of the specimen was previously sequenced by BIOUG, the resulting sequence (BOLD ID GMCHK383-14) was relatively short (600 bases with gaps in 12 positions), thus preventing us from presenting an analysis of DNA data in this study.
Given the characters of this specimen, Diakontschukia belongs to the Phanacidini rather than the Aulacideini, especially based on the pronotal pits which are modified into a single effaced linear impression (apparent as separate ovate impressions in Aulacideini) (Ronquist et al. 2015, Buffington et al. 2020, Nastasi et al. in press) and has F1 conspicuously longer than F2 (see above). Placement of Diakontschukia in Phanacidini will be confirmed via molecular data in a forthcoming study of UCEs, for which the DNA extract of the studied specimen was retrieved from BIOUG and submitted for library preparation (Nastasi et al., unpublished).
In the same paper describing Diakontschukia saussureae, Diakontschuk (2001) also described the aylacine genus and species Donum jacuticum for a specimen reared from a flowerhead of Saussurea. We attempted to find additional records of this genus in the literature as it evidently was not mentioned by Melika (2006) in his revision of Eastern Palearctic Cynipidae nor assigned to a revised herb gall wasp tribe by Ronquist et al. (2015) or Nastasi et al. (in press). We found that the genus had been transferred to the Figitidae in a paper reviewing the Cynipoidea types deposited at the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology (SIZK) (Zerova et al. 2006) but had never been assigned to a subordinate taxon within Figitidae, thus appearing absent from lists of both cynipid and figitid genera given by Ronquist et al. (2015), Buffington et al. (2020), and others. After conferring with experts of Figitidae, the species almost certainly belongs to the Figitinae based on Diakontschuk’s description and illustrations and is probably a close relative or junior synonym of Amphithectus areolatus (Hartig) (M. Forshage & M. Buffington, pers. comm.). Study of the type material deposited at SIZK will be necessary to substantiate the placement of the genus and species within the Figitidae.
description: Published as part of Nastasi, Louis F. & Deans, Andrew R., 2025, Review of the world genera of Phanacidini (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Cynipidae), with the first record from China and a new tribal diagnostic character, pp. 401-419 in Zootaxa 5621 (4) on pages 409-411, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5621.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15262964