Tenthredo cupreiceps Konow 1907
Creators: name: Taeger, Andreas
name: París, Mercedes
name: Nieves-Aldrey, Jose Luis
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Tenthredo
Tenthredo cupreiceps

description: Peus cupreiceps Konow, 1907
A valid species, Tenthredo (Metallopeus) cupreiceps (Konow, 1907), comb. nov., spec. rev.
= Metallopeus cupreolus Malaise, 1945, syn. nov.
= Metallopeus inermis Malaise, 1945, syn. nov.
Types. Peus cupreiceps Konow, 1907b: 170. Syntypes ♀, “ Sikkim ”. Lectotype ♀, hereby designated (MNCN_ Ent 100241, MNCN Cat. Tipos Nº 8130, Fig. 16, see also http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.757717). Type locality: India: Sikkim.
Metallopeus cupreolus Malaise, 1945: 185, plate IXe. Syntypes 1 ♂, 6 ♀ ” Tibet (Gyangtse); North Burma (Adung Valley); Szechuan (Lunanfu); 3–4000 m ”. Lectotype ♀, hereby designated (NHRS, Fig. 17, see also http:// dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.757719). Type locality: China: Szechuan: Long'an (ca. 32.41°N, 104.53°E, “ Tatzaopin (Lunanfu)”). Paralectotypes: 1 ♀ Adung valley, 12000 ft 31.8.1931 (Myanmar: Kachin State, near Adunglong, ca. 28.2°N, 97.7°E); 1 ♀ Gyangtse, 12000 ft., 18.06.1905 (China: Xizang: Gyangtse, 28.95°N, 89.63°E (both NHRS). The whereabouts of the remaining paralectotypes (1 ♂, 3 ♀) are unknown.
Metallopeus inermis Malaise, 1945: 184, plate IXd. Holotype ♀, “ Tibet, 4000 m. Type locality: Gyangtse” (BMNH, not examined). Type locality: China: Xizang: Gyangtse, 28.95°N, 89.63°E. Paratypes: 2 ♀ same locality (NHRS, Fig. 18, see also http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.757722).
Discussion. Konow’s description of cupreiceps contains no evidence that he had more than one specimen of the species to hand. Malaise (1945: 186) synonymized it with M. splendidus Konow (see below): “(l ♀, compared with both paratypes, kindly sent from Berlin and Madrid respectively).” The first author has seen these two “ paratypes ” in the NHRS, one labeled splendidus (http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.773063), the other cupreiceps (http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.773064). Both specimens belong to splendidus as noted by Malaise (Tenthredo splendida, Fig. 37 see below). On the other hand it is evident that both specimens were labeled subsequently by Dusmet, and not originally by Konow. It may be assumed that Dusmet mixed up the specimens of the taxa. Konow’s description of cupreiceps is quite clear, as he describes the color of the head as coppery (and he derived the species name from this), whereas splendidus has a metallic green head. Malaise’s cupreolus agrees very well with the type specimen of cupreiceps labeled by Konow (lectotype, MNCN), and therefore it is considered to be its junior synonym. Furthermore, Malaise described M. inermis, based on missing “mesosternal thorns”. Otherwise, this taxon agrees with cupreiceps, and is known from the same locality (Gyangtse) as cupreiceps. There seem to be no further records of inermis. Saini (2007) recorded inermis for India, but characterized it as a species with (!) mesosternal thorns. His description fits normal cupreiceps. Morphological characters like the shape of the occipital carina, or the size of the tubercle in front of the front ocellus, seems to be rather variable in the group. The mesoscutellum of cupreiceps is slightly to very strongly pointed in the middle, in inermis nearly rounded. Variability in development of mesepisternal thorns is known to occur in other Palearctic species of Tenthredo, e.g., T. trunca Konow, 1908 (Malaise 1945), or T. caucasica Eversmann, 1847 (Taeger 1985). It might be, that the reduction of the thorns is connected somehow to the body size, the inermis (para-)types are only about 13–14 mm long, the cupreolus types 14–15 mm, and the cupreiceps lectotype nearly 19 mm. We suppose that inermis falls within the variability range of cupreiceps, and therefore consider it as its junior synonym.
description: Published as part of Taeger, Andreas, París, Mercedes & Nieves-Aldrey, Jose Luis, 2014, The type specimens of sawflies (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, pp. 103-138 in Zootaxa 3790 (1) on page 115, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3790.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/4914035