Xyela kamtshatica Gussakovskij 1935
Creators: name: Blank, Stephan M.
name: Shinohara, Akihiko
name: Altenhofer, Ewald
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Xyelidae
Xyela
Xyela kamtshatica

description: Xyela kamtshatica Gussakovskij, 1935   
 Xyela kamtshatica Gussakovskij, 1935: 131, 133–134, 363–364, ♀, type locality: Russia, Klyuchi, on river Kamtshatka; Benson 1961: 171 (junior synonym of alpigena); Rasnitsyn 1965: 503 (removed from synonymy).   
 Xyela julii: Enslin 1927: 379–380 (misidentification).   
 Xyela alpigena: Benson 1961: 171 (senior synonym of kamtshatica); Benson 1962: 385 (partly misidentified); Togashi 1964: 51 (misidentification).   
 Description. Female. Color. Head yellow with black and brown pattern: two black stripes along supraantennal furrows 2–4 times as wide as diameter of lateral ocellus, meeting black ocellar and postocellar area or separated by yellow, black longitudinal spot in middle of frons present, sometimes confluent with other dark pattern; kidneyshaped spots on vertex not clearly separate from black postocellar area (Fig. 30). Antennae brown, paler below. Proximal half of article 3 of maxillary palp more or less infuscate. Thorax dorsally brown with more or less distinct paler pattern on pronotum and mesonotal lobes, mesoscutellum black or with small spot, tegulae pale with brown spot in middle, mesepisternum largely pale. Abdominal terga dark brown to black, lateral parts of terga 8 and 9+10 sometimes brown to pale brown, valvifer 2 dark or partly pale brown, membrane between valvifer 2 and valvula 3 white, valvula 3 black with small white ventral margin up to distal fifth (Fig. 98). Legs brown, posterior coxae dark brown with small pale distal spot ventrally, femora partly with dark longitudinal stripes. Wing membrane slightly infuscate, venation and pterostigma pale brown.   
Morphology. Fore wing 4.0– 4.7 mm long, (1.75–)1.85–2.00 times longer than ovipositor sheath, Rs+M 50–200 µm long, 2r-m meeting Rs proximal to furcation of Rs1 and Rs2. Synantennomere 3 680–810 µm long, antennomere 4 160–200 µm long and 4.5–6.0 times longer than wide distally. Article 3 of maxillary palp 430–500 µm long, ca 1.40–1.55 times longer than scape and distinctly wider than synantennomere 3. OOL: POL = 1.60–2.00: 1. Ovipositor sheath 2.15–2.45 mm long, valvula 3 2.30–2.50 times longer than valvifer 2 and 9.0–10.0 times longer than wide (Fig. 98). Valvula 3 of ovipositor sheath wedge-shaped, in distal third diamond-shaped in cross section, pale membranous area distally extending up to preapical region as small ventral pale margin of valvula 3, valvula 3 distally narrowing to round tip, distally with sensilla field directed caudally, bearing ca 6 setae. Ovipositor gently curved downwards. Valvula 1 of ovipositor compressed and slightly wedge-shaped, distal 0.1 narrowed to sclerotized tip bearing 3–4 serrulae and 7–8 annuli (4–5 distal vertical and 3–4 basal oblique), ventral edge sloping up to tip, aulax preapically, olistether with ca 5–7 setae in distal half. Valvula 2 evenly tapering toward slightly sclerotized tip, with 4 vertical annuli, dorsal edge without teeth, lateral wall of distal 0.4 with ca 6 evenly spaced groups of sensilla campaniformia surrounded by dense sclerotization, dorsal margin of valvula 2 smooth. Posterior tibia 0.95–1.05 mm long, all claws with delicate subapical tooth.  
Male. Color. Similar to female. Dark color pattern of face above antennae confluent or medial stripe separated by a narrow yellow gap (Fig. 31), mesoscutellum completely black, pedicel and synantennomere 3 pale brown. Hypopygium dark brown.  
Morphology. Fore wing 3.5–4.2 mm long, Rs+M 0–150 µm long, sometimes 1r-m present and 0–50 µm long, 2r-m meeting Rs proximal to furcation of Rs1 and Rs2 or fusing with Rs2 distal to furcation. Synantennomere 3 630–780 µm long, antennomere 4 160–210 µm long and 4.0–6.5 times longer than wide distally. Article 3 of maxillary palp 360–430 µm long, 1.25–1.35 times longer than scape. OOL: POL = 1.70–2.15: 1. Longitudinal apodeme of basiparamere curved, basal portion in lateral position, harpe about as long as wide in lateral view. Lower ergot on valvular stalk present. Valviceps 1.30–1.40 times longer than wide on medial lobe, lateral lamella vertical with proximal and distal edge s-shaped, proximal lobe of penis valve 0.19–0.23 times as long as valviceps and 0.95–1.00 times as high as medial lobe, excision on lower edge 0.15–0.18 as deep as width of medial lobe, valviceps on medial lobe 1.70–1.75 times wider than on distal lobe, 2 distal flagella present, tip of longer flagellum reaching 0.70–0.75 width of distal lobe (Fig. 130). Valviceps without median longitudinal sclerotization, medial lobe broad and slightly truncate on upper edge and evenly sloping down to distal lobe, with dense group of 8–14 cone-like sensilla along upper edge and on lateral surface, upper edge between medial and distal lobe with dense pattern of setae. Posterior tibia 0.85–1.05 mm long, all claws with delicate subapical tooth.  
 Type material: Holotype ♀: [round, golden label signifying type specimen in ZIN]; [in Cyrillic:] “sel. [= selo, village] Klyuchevskoe na r. [= na reka, on river] Kamchatk A Derzhavin 6.vi 09 ”; [Enslin’s handwriting:] “ Xyela julii Breb. ♀”; “ Xyela kamtschatica [sic!] sp. n. ♀ Gussakovskij det.”; “1:2,5”; [red:] “Holotypus Xyela kamtshatica Gussakovskij, 1935 ♀ det. S. M. Blank 2001”; “ Xyela kamtshatica Gussakovskij, 1935 ♀ det. S. M. Blank 2001”. Body was broken in two and then glued together by a previous investigator, otherwise in good condition. ZIN.   
 Host plant. Pinus koraiensis Sieb. & Zucc. (Rasnitsyn 1965), Ο Pinus pumila Regel.   
 Biology. Togashi (1961) reported 5♀ 20♂ swept from Alnus maximowiczii catkins above 2,500 m close to the Oonanjimine peaks. The alder catkins are supposedly a pollen source for the imagines.   
 Geographic distribution. Japan (Honshu), Russia (Kamchatskaya Oblast) (Fig. 9). Reported from Hokkaido by Takeuchi (1938).   
 Remarks. Among East Palearctic representatives of the alpigena group, Xyela kamtshatica is characterized by the combination of usually dark scutellum, infuscate wings, basally infuscate article 3 of the maxillary palp, valvula 3 being 2.30–2.50 times longer than valvifer 2 (similar in X. koraiensis, which has clear wings), and comparatively stout valviceps. See X. peuce for differentiation of West and East Palearctic taxa.   
 With some reservations Enslin (1927) reported the specimen under the name Xyela julii which Gussakovskij (1935) subsequently designated as holotype of X. kamtshatica. Xyela julii was the only Xyela species accepted as valid at that time besides the strikingly different X. longula. Benson (1961) synonymized X. kamtshatica with the central European X. alpigena without giving any reason and without type study. Rasnitsyn (1965) erroneously applied the name kamtshatica for a species of the Russian Far East (Kamtshatka and Primorye) occurring on Pinus koraiensis. But P. koraiensis is absent from Kamtshatka, while P. pumila is present both on Kamtshatka and in the Primorskiy Kray (Figs 9–10). Records of X. kamtshatica auct. from the Primorskiy Kray refer to X. koraiensis (see below). Rasnitsyn (1965) indicated “ X. ? kamtshatica Guss. ” for Japan. Contrary to X. kamtshatica it should be characterized by valvula 3 being 2.3 times longer than valvifer 2. The relevant specimen from Mt. Haku in the ZMUM is badly damaged (head and most of the abdomen missing). A series from this site (NSMT) agrees with the concept of the real X. kamtshatica.   
 As discussed by Maa (1949), the Russian and Latin original descriptions of the wing venation and the relevant keys conflict with Gussakovskij’s (1935) figure 49 for X. kamtshatica. He gives a description of “the basal vein being interstitial with the cubital vein” (translated from the key on p. 363), which corresponds with the absence of vein Rs+M, and cell 1M (Gussakovskij’s cell d 1) being pentagonal as illustrated for X. longula (see Gussakovskij’s figure 48). Figure 49, however, depicts a wing with an evident vein Rs+M and a hexagonal cell 1M. Actually the left wing of the holotype is similar to Gussakovskij’s figure 48 (vein Rs+M ca 50 µm long) and the right resembles his figure 49 (vein Rs+M ca 100 µm long).   
 Although X. kamtshatica has not yet been reared, P. pumila is undoubtedly the larval host, and P. koraiensis reported by Rasnitsyn (1965) can be excluded (see above). At its type locality, in Klyuchi, as on the whole Kamtshatka Peninsula Pinus pumila is the only, though abundant, pine species present at 300–1,000 m altitude (Fig. 9). The vegetation in the subalpine zone of Mt. Hakusan is dominated by P. pumila, and Togashi (1964) and Okutani (1982) supposed this to be the host plant for Japanese X. kamtshatica. It is the only pine species growing there, and it is intermixed with birch, alder and mountain ash (Ogishi 1999).   
 Material of X. kamtshatica studied here was collected on Kamtshatka and on Mt Hakusan, two widely distant localities at the eastern limits of the wide range exhibited by P. pumila. Takeuchi (1938) additionally reported the presence on the mountain Daisetsuzan, Hokkaido. In the Sikhote Alin P. pumila forms thickets above the forest at an elevation of (1,150–) 1,200 –1,300 m altitude (Kolesnikov 1938). Disjunct populations occur even farther south at high elevations in the high mountains of North Korea (Mirov 1967, Sokolov et al. 1977). Although extensive material was available from the Russian Far East and from South Korea, X. kamtshatica was not found there.
description: Published as part of Blank, Stephan M., Shinohara, Akihiko & Altenhofer, Ewald, 2013,  The Eurasian species of  Xyela  (Hymenoptera, Xyelidae): taxonomy, host plants and distribution , pp. 1-106 in Zootaxa 3629 (1) on pages 21-23, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3629.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5261330