Siobla infuscata Saini, Singh, Singh & Singh 1985
Creators: name: Niu, Gengyun
name: Wei, Meicai
name: Taeger, Andreas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Tenthredinidae
Siobla
Siobla infuscata

description: Siobla infuscata Saini, Singh, Singh & Singh, 1985
Siobla infuscata Saini, Singh, Singh & Singh, 1985: 381 –382. Ƥ, type locality: Mandal, Uttaranchal (India). Siobla metallica Saini & Bharti, 1996: 377.
Siobla chalybeata Saini & Vasu, 2000: 280 –281; Taeger et al., 2010: 582.
Description. Holotype: Ƥ. “FEMALE: Length 13.8 mm. Body metallic blue except antennal segments 6–9 which are black and following brownish black; labrum, mouthparts and tarsi of four front legs, Forewings strongly infuscated all over, hindwings sub-infumated, stigma and veins brown to black.
Clypeus truncate, labrum convex with roundly pointed deflexed anterior margin; malar space almost 2x diameter of an ocellus; inner margins of eyes emarginate and slightly converging downwards; lower interocular distance 1.25x eye length; ratio of distance from posterior ocellus to eye, to distance between posterior ocelli, to distance from posterior ocellus to hind margin of head, 1.0:0.75:1.0. Antenna longer than head and thorax combined; 1st and 2nd antennal segments each longer than broad; length of 3rd and 4th in ratio 3:1.75; 4–9 gradually decreasing in length. Frontal area raised to level of eyes; supraantennal tubercles raised and confluent with frontal ridges; circum and interocellar furrows sharp; lateral furrows deep and postocellar area slightly broader than long. Head strongly carinate behind eyes. Scutellum pyramidally raised.
Head densely punctured, size and shape of punctures variable. Pronotum densely punctured with its anterior border impunctate. Mesonotum distinctly punctured, but punctures smaller than those on head irregular area in middle of each mesonotal lateral lobe with minute punctures; scutellum with very large and deep punctures; appendage impunctate; postscutellum likewise punctured.
Mesopleuron rugously punctured; mesosternum densely and minutely punctured; Metapleuron and metasternum distinctly punctured. Stripe along the posterior aspect of each pleural suture impunctate. All abdominal segments minutely cross-striated and irregularly punctured. Body covered with silvery pubescence. Female lancet (Fig. 5).” (as Saini et al., 1985)
Male: Unknown.
Specimens examined. No specimen examined. The holotype of S. infuscata, which is the only known specimen, might be lost (Saini, pers. comm.).
Remarks. Malaise (1945: 125) described Siobla rufipes infuscata n. var. and wrote about the material: ‘(1 3 and several intermediate forms). Type locality: Kambaiti’. The typical form (Siobla rufipes Malaise, 1945) occurs sympatrically. From this content, and because Malaise (1945) named taxa as n. ssp. if he wanted to assign them subspecific rank, it is clear that Siobla rufipes var. infuscata Malaise, 1945 is an infrasubspecific name according to Art. 45.6.4. ICZN (1999). As the name was not applied before 1985 as (sub)specific name or senior homonym, it is not available according to Art. 45.6.4.1. ICZN (1999). Consequently, Siobla infuscata M.S. Saini, D. Singh, M. Singh & T. Singh, 1985 is valid, and not a primary homonym as stated by Saini & Vasu (2000) and some subsequent papers. Both replacement names (Siobla metallica M.S. Saini & Bharti, 1996 and Siobla chalybeata M.S. Saini & Vasu, 2000) are considered to be younger synonyms.
Saini et al. (1985) mentioned “it has only one closed middle cell instead of two in the hindwing. In all other respects it resembles Siobla.” We think it might be abnormal.
description: Published as part of Niu, Gengyun, Wei, Meicai & Taeger, Andreas, 2012, Revision of the Siobla metallica group (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), pp. 1-49 in Zootaxa 3196 on pages 10-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.280105