Ophion areolaris Brauns 1889
Creators: name: Johansson, Niklas
name: Cederberg, Björn
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Ichneumonidae
Ophion
Ophion areolaris

description: Ophion areolaris Brauns, 1889
Figs 6B, 7D, 8K, 9H, 10J
Ophion areolaris Brauns, 1889: 92–93.
Ophion frontalis Strobl, 1904: 53–54. Syn. nov.
Material examined
Holotype, ♀, of Ophion areolaris (ZMHB); holotype, ♀, of Ophion frontalis (CSA); 54 ♀♀, 3 ♂♂ (Sweden); 5 ♀♀ (Norway); 4 ♀♀ (Lithuania).
Diagnosis
Fore wing length 14–16 mm. Antenna in both sexes with 41–47 flagellomeres. First flagellomere 3.5 times as long as wide. Head narrowed behind eyes. Occipital carina widely interrupted dorsally, weak laterally (Fig. 7D). Mandibular gape right-angled, with internal angles. Malar space about 0.1 times as long as mandibular base in female and male. Wing membrane yellowish. Mesopleuron polished and punctate. Interstices between punctures 1–2 times their diameter. Pleurosternal angles strongly obtuse, weakly defined and obviously anterior to sternal angles (Fig. 9H). Scutellum without lateral carinae with parallel sides (Fig. 6B), strongly convex in lateral view. Propodeum coriaceous with carina strongly reduced anterior to posterior transverse carina. Area superomedia often present as a central convex arch (Fig. 10J). Female with metasoma elongate, tergite 4–5 almost square in lateral view (Fig. 8K). Hind trochantellus shorter than wide in dorsal view. Spiracles placed more or less at the center of the tergites. Male with parameres short, about as long as wide and almost straight dorsally in lateral view.
Colour
Body testaceous, sometimes with irregular brownish areas on meso- and metasoma. Mandibular teeth black. Stemmaticum testaceous or brown, very rarely black or dark brown. Ovipositor sheath black, contrasting in colour with posterior metasomal segments.
DNA barcode
The DNA barcode sequences of two Swedish specimens of Ophion areolaris are available at the BOLD systems database (www.boldsystems.org, BIN. BOLD: ADF9243. Specimen codes STI-NJBC: 06–07).
Ecology
This species, as its sibling species O. ocellaris, occurs in late summer and autumn, August–September, and the hosts seem to be various species of Thyatirinae (family Drepanidae) (Brock 1982). It occurs mainly in boreal woodland habitats but has also been attracted to light in semi-open environments.
Distribution in Sweden
This species occurs in Southern and Central Sweden and its range doesn’t seem to extend quite as far north as O. ocellaris.
Remarks
This species is sometimes confused with O. ocellaris. It is however easily distinguished from that species by the characters given in the key and the diagnosis. For further comments see O. ocellaris below. The female holotype of O. frontalis Strobl, 1904 in CSA was studied and it is a miscoloured specimen of O. areolaris with stemmaticum, frons and left side of the dorsal part of the head black. Ophion frontalis Strobl, 1904 is therefore to be regarded as a junior synonym of Ophion areolaris Brauns, 1889 syn. nov.
description: Published as part of Johansson, Niklas & Cederberg, Björn, 2019, Review of the Swedish species of Ophion (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ophioninae), with the description of 18 new species and an illustrated key to Swedish species, pp. 1-136 in European Journal of Taxonomy 550 on pages 42-43, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2019.550, http://zenodo.org/record/3476402