Chrysis smithii Gribodo 1879
Creators: name: Neveen, Paolo Rosa
name: Gadallah, Neveen S.
name: Edmardash, Yusuf A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Masaridae
Chrysis
Chrysis smithii

description: CHRYSIS SMITHII GRIBODO, 1879
The holotype of C. smithii (Fig. 3), listed by Kimsey & Bohart (1991) at MSNG, was examined by Rosa (2009). However, a second syntype was subsequently found at NHMUK (B.M. Type Hym. 13.151) (box 76). Based on the assumption given in Kimsey & Bohart (1991), we consider the specimen housed at MSNG as the lectotype by inference of the term holotype (ICZN 1999). Furthermore, Kimsey & Bohart (1991) synonymised C. smithii and P. simillima, despite being both described by Gribodo (1879) on the same page and in different genera. Considering that Gribodo was an expert chrysidid taxonomist, it is at least unlikely that he described the same species in two different genera. In fact, the types of these two species are distinct. The type of P.simillima has short first flagellomere and resemble C. stilboides, whereas C. smithii has an elongate first flagellomere and was not included in the genus Pyria. Chrysis smithii (see the description below) is therefore clearly distinct from C. simillima and C. stilboides, and it is here resurrected to species rank.
Based on the study of material identified at MNHN and NMLU, we can state that C. smithii is the correct name for the species misidentified by du Buysson (1898) and Linsenmaier (1994, 1999) as C. simillima. According to Linsenmaier (1994), this species belongs to the lyncea group due to the shape of the head, pronotum and mesopleuron which align with the diagnostic criteria of the lyncea group. However, other diagnostic features, such as the metasomal apical margin and the shape of black spots on second sternum, do not match the diagnosis of the lyncea group (see below).
Chrysis smithii Gribodo, 1879
(Fig. 3; 9)
Chrysis smithii Gribodo, 1879: 326.
Chrysis simillima sensu auctorum.
TYPE MATERIAL. — Lectotype. Eastern AFrica • ♀ (designated by Kimsey & Bohart, 1991: 393 by inference of the term “holotype”); “Affrica [sic] orientale”= Eastern Africa; MSNG (examined).
MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Yemen • 1♀; Hajjah Governorate, Hirran; 28.IV.1936; M.T. leg.; EFC.
DIAGNOSIS. — Body length: 9.0- 12 mm. Body metallic green, metasomal tergum bluish medially; antenna with scape, pedicel, first and sometimes base of the second flagellomeres metallic green; wings dark brown with ancillary vein extending from radial sector (Fig. 9D); first flagellomere elongate (l/w = 2.5-3.0), slightly longer than second one; metanotal mucron triangular, densely and coarsely punctate throughout (Fig. 9B); genal carina sharp; occipital hook prominent and spiny; clypeus medially emarginated and bulging; transverse frontal carina U-shaped, sharp (Fig. 9A); mesopleuron smooth and shiny medially on mesepimeron and on mesepisternum (Fig. 9C); ventrally with two teeth; third tergum with four triangular teeth and lateral tooth as a blunt angle; black spots on second sternum large, transversal, with curved margins, laterally connected to sternum margins and medially fused (Fig. 9F).
DISTRIBUTION IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA. — Saudi Arabia (Linsenmaier 1994 as C. (Pyria) simillima), Yemen (new record).
EXTRALIMITAL DISTRIBUTION. — West Africa and East Africa, from Mali to Sudan.
description: Published as part of Neveen, Paolo Rosa, Gadallah, Neveen S. & Edmardash, Yusuf A., 2025, New findings of cuckoo wasps for Yemen with nomenclatural changes and review of the Arabian hexadentate species of the genus Chrysis Linnaeus, 1761 (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae), pp. 151-166 in Zoosystema 47 (11) on pages 155-162, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a11, http://zenodo.org/record/15180968