Antargidium atriceps Benson
Creators: name: Schmidt, Stefan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Argidae
Antargidium
Antargidium atriceps

description: Antargidium atriceps Benson
(Figs 2, 9, 18, 19)
Antargidium atriceps Benson, 1935: 212 –213.
Antargidium atriceps: Quinlan, 1974: 227 (type information); Benson 1963: 631 (classification); Taeger et al. 2010: 121 (catalogue).
Description. Female. Length 5–6 mm. Head black (except mouthparts brownish). Thorax black with pronotum and tegula yellow. Lower mesepisternum brownish. Legs yellow except tarsi suffused with brown. Abdomen with tergites 1–3 yellow and apical half black. Wings slightly infuscate; veins and stigma dark brown to black.
Supraclypeal area with distinct longitudinal median carina. Antenna slightly longer than width of head (1.1); pedicel transverse, 0.7 × as long as broad. POL slightly shorter than OOL (0.8); postocellar area about 1.8 × as broad as long. Eyes about 1.5 × as long as broad, converging below, interocular distance 1.2 × eye height. Posterior margin of hypopygium entire. Sawsheath narrow and pointed in dorsal view, subtruncate in lateral view, dorsally at base with scopae but without dorsal projections. Lancet stout, rounded at apex, with 18 shallow serrulae, serration of serrulae indistinct, proximal margins of annuli with ctenidia.
Male. Length 4.5–5.5 mm. Similar to female except colour sometimes darker and some specimens almost completely black.
Host. Arytera distylis Radlk., A. foveolata F. Muell. (Sapindaceae).
Distribution. Australia: Queensland.
Types. Holotype: Female, labelled “ Type ” [round label with red margin], “T5931”, “Tambourine, 21-2-27, H Hacker”, “Genitalia mounted on a slide” [printed], “ Holotype, Antargidium atriceps, Ƥ, det. R. B. Benson, 1934 ” (BMNH, examined). Paratypes: “Conondale, 7-1-30, H Hacker” (1 Ƥ, BMNH); “National Pk., Q[ueensland], H. Hacker, Nov. 1920 ” (1 Ƥ, QMB); same data as holotype (1 3, QMB).
Additional specimens examined. QUEENSLAND, Mt. Tambourine, 15.ii.1960, F. A. Perkins (1 Ƥ, QMB); Brookfield (27° 28’ S, 152° 53’ E), 10.i.1999 and 13.xii.1997, reared from larvae on Arytera distylis, J. Grigg (6 Ƥ, 4 3, QMB; 1 Ƥ, 1 3, ZSM); Enoggera Res., site 3 RF (27° 27’ S, 152° 55’E), 21.xii.1999 - 27.i.2000, C. J. Burwell & S. G. Evans, Malaise, 100 m, 50265 (1 Ƥ, QMB); Lamington National Park, 27.vi.2007, larvae on Sapindaceae, D. Bito (5 Ƥ, 3 3, QMB); Brookfield, Rafting Ground Reserve, (27.47° S, 152.898° E, 67 m), 16.ix.2007, S. Schmidt (1 Ƥ, ZSM) (ZSM-HYM AE058); Brisbane, Rafting Ground Reserve, Pullen Vale, (27° 31’ S, 152° 53’ E), 6.xii.1998, reared from larvae on Arytery foleolata, J. Grigg (1 3, QMB).
Remarks. The type locality that is given in Benson’s original description as Tamborine, New South Wales, is probably incorrect. The locality written on the holotype label is Tambourine and this most probably refers to Tambourine in south-eastern Queensland (also written as Tamborine) and not in New South Wales. Also, all other specimens of the species, including all paratypes, were collected in south-eastern Queensland. The distribution is therefore given as Queensland. However, since the species is rarely collected, it is possible that it has a wider distribution and occurs in northern New South Wales or even further south.
The species can readily be distinguished from other members of the genus by the completely black head (except the mouthparts) and the pronounced median longitudinal carina on the face reaching from the frontal down to the supraclypeal area.
description: Published as part of Schmidt, Stefan, 2012, Revision of the Australian sawfly genus Antargidium (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Argidae) with description of two new species, pp. 47-56 in Zootaxa 3180 on page 53, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.279970