Konowia Brauns 1884
Creators: name: Shinohara, Akihiko
name: Hara, Hideho
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Xiphydriidae
Konowia

description: Konowia Brauns, 1884
(Figs 1–8, 9 D–F, 10)
Konowia Brauns, 1884: 220 (Type species: Konowia megapolitana Brauns. Monotypic); Enslin, 1911: 178; Enslin, 1918: 709; Gussakovskij, 1935: 46; Semenov Tian-Shanskij & Gussakovskij, 1935: 121; Ross, 1937: 111 (synonym of Xiphydria); Maa, 1949: 67; Benson, 1954: 157; Smith, 1978: 107; Jansen, 1987: 1; Lelej & Taeger, 2007: 960; Taeger et al., 2010: 119 (synonym of Xiphydria); Sundukov & Lelej, 2012: 114 (synonym of Xiphydria); Shinohara, 2019a: 3; Shinohara, 2019c: 22.
Pseudoxiphydria Enslin, 1911: 177 (Type species: Pseudoxiphydria betulae Enslin. Monotypic); Enslin, 1918: 708; Gussakovskij, 1935: 45; Ross, 1937: 111 (synonym of Xiphydria); Maa, 1949: 70; Benson, 1954: 157 (synonym of Konowia); Smith, 1978: 107 (synonym of Konowia); Jansen, 1987: 9; Lelej & Taeger, 2007: 960 (synonym of Konowia); Taeger et al., 2010: 119 (synonym of Xiphydria); Sundukov & Lelej, 2012: 114 (synonym of Xiphydria); Shinohara, 2019a: 3 (synonym of Konowia).
Xiphydriola Semenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1921: 82 (Type species: Xiphydriola amurensis Semenov-Tian-Shanskij. Monotypic); Gussakovskij, 1935: 44; Semenov Tian-Shanskij & Gussakovskij, 1935: 122; Maa, 1949: 63; Benson, 1954: 157; Smith, 1978: 125; Taeger et al., 2010: 121; Smith et al., 2011: 66; Sundukov & Lelej, 2012: 115; Sundukov, 2019: 10; Shinohara, 2019c: 24. N. syn.
See Smith (1978) for more references.
Description. Female: Length without ovipositor 5.0– 12.5 mm. Black, often with pale brownish areas on mandible and legs, without creamy-white areas on antenna, legs and abdomen (Figs 1, 2). Malar space broad, with shallow ventral pit; occipital carina (crassa) distinct, almost entire; genal carina developed nearly to vertex but their dorsal ends widely separated from each other; vertex without median longitudinal furrow or row of punctures (Fig. 3); vertex and upper part of gena largely covered with distinct surface microsculpture, dull; frons usually with fine reticulate sculpture. Antenna with 12–15 antennomeres (Fig. 4 A–I, K–N, P–T). Labial palpus with 3 palpomeres (Fig. 2F); maxillary palpus with 5 palpomeres, about as long as labial palpus. Tarsal claws each with blunt basal lobe and without inner tooth (Fig. 6 F–K). Forewing with cell C narrow, cell 3R1 open at apex anteriorly, crossvein 2r-rs present, crossvein 3r-m usually present, crossvein 2r-m interstitial with or basal to crossvein 2m-cu on vein M, and vein 1A fused with or separated from vein 2A+3A (Fig. 6 A–C). Hindwing with cell R1 open at apex anteriorly and usually without crossvein 2r-m. Valvula 3 (apical sheath) about 0.8–1.1× length of valvifer 2 (basal sheath) (Figs 7, 8).
Male: Similar to female. Length 5.0– 11.5 mm. Antenna with 13–15 antennomeres (Fig. 4J, O, U). Abdominal sterna 4–8 each without a tuft of long golden hairs; apical projection of valviceps in genitalia not very long (Figs 9 D–F, 10).
Remarks. The representatives of this genus are small (the largest specimen is 12.5 mm long), mostly black xiphydriids with no creamy-white marks, further characterized by the more or less microsculptured vertex and gena on the head, simple tarsal claws on all legs, the vein 1A often fused with 2A+3A in the forewing, usual lack of a crossvein 2r-m in the hindwing, absence of long golden hair tufts on the male abdominal sterna, and rather short apical projection of the valviceps in the male genitalia (Figs 9F, 10C, F). Semenov-Tian-Shanskij (1921) distinguished his new genus Xiphydriola from Konowia and Pseudoxiphydria by the four cubital cells (3r-m present) and the separated veins 1A and 2A+3A in the forewing. As discussed above, these venational characters are not stable enough to warrant distinction of genera and we treat them as synonyms. Konowia is a rare genus previously recorded from Europe to the Russian Far East (Lelej & Taeger 2007). Synonymized with Xiphydriola, Konowia is now known to occur also in Korea and Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, Japan.
There is some confusion as to the identity of the previously recorded males from Europe. Enslin (1918) first referred to the males in this group, which he identified as K. megapolitana. Jansen (1987) disagreed with this view and identified all the known males as K. betulae. Jansen’s reasons were the same proportion of the hind tarsomeres as the female of K. betulae, occasional presence of the crossvein 3r-m and the distal position of the crossvein 2m-cu from the crossvein 2r-m in the males. Though we need more material and information to confirm the correct association of sexes, our study may support, rather than refute, Jansen’s view. We have examined one male Japanese specimen (B 8 in Tables 1, 2, Figs 1G, 4J, 9 D–F) agreeing, except for the absence of crossvein 3r-m in both forewings, with Jansen’s interpretation of K. betulae, which has the same proportion of hind tarsomeres and the same relative position of the crossveins 2r-m and 2m-cu in the forewing as the females of K. betulae (Table 2). We have seen several female specimens of K. betulae, but no K. megapolitana, from Japan and adjacent areas.
The four species of Konowia may be separated into two groups of species, one represented by K, betulae and K. yasumatsui, and the other represented by K. megapolitana and K. kojimai. The former pair has the antennae comparatively thick and the crossveins 2r-m and 2m-cu far apart on the vein M in the forewing, whereas the latter pair has the antennae slender and the crossveins 2r-m and 2m-cu usually interstitial on the vein M. It is interesting that the distributional ranges of the two groups of species largely overlap (both occurring from Europe to Japan), but the two component species of each group are totally allopatric; K. betulae is distributed widely from Europe to the Russian Far East, Northeast China, Korea and Hokkaido (Japan), while K. yasumatsui has been found in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu (Japan), and K. megapolitana is spread widely from Europe to the Russian Far East, whereas K. kojimai has been found in Hokkaido and Honshu (Japan). In each pair of species, speciation may have occurred as a result of geographical isolation.
description: Published as part of Shinohara, Akihiko & Hara, Hideho, 2021, Konowia Brauns, 1884, and Monoxiphia, n. gen. (Hymenoptera, Xiphydriidae) Palaearctic woodwasps with simple tarsal claws on all legs, pp. 565-587 in Zootaxa 4920 (4) on pages 571-575, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4920.4.7, http://zenodo.org/record/4491268