Ophion ocellaris Ulbricht 1926
Creators: name: Johansson, Niklas
name: Cederberg, Björn
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Ichneumonidae
Ophion
Ophion ocellaris

description: Ophion ocellaris Ulbricht, 1926
Figs 7C, 8L, 10I
Ophion ocellaris Ulbricht, 1926: 17.
Ophion fuscicollis Hellén, 1926: 14?
Material examined
Holotype, ♂, of Ophion fuscicollis (ZMH); 83 ♀♀, 11 ♂♂ (Sweden); 1 ♀ (Croatia); 7 ♀♀ (Norway).
Diagnosis
Fore wing length 13–15 mm. Antenna in both sexes with 51–55 flagellomeres. First flagellomere 3.5 times as long as wide. Head narrowed behind eyes. Occipital carina entirely absent (Fig. 7C). Malar space about 0.1 times as long as mandibular base in female and male. Mandibular gape right-angled, with internal angles. Wing membrane strongly 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 (as in Fig. 9H). Scutellum without lateral carinae, rectangular with parallel sides (as in Fig. 6B). Propodeum coriaceous with carina strongly reduced and only posterior transverse carina present and often interrupted or weak centrally. Propodeum centrally with transverse wrinkles (Fig. 10I). Female metasoma shorter than in O. areolaris. Tergite 4–5 in lateral view about 0.75 times as long as wide. Spiracles of tergite 2–7 more close to the base of the tergite (Fig. 8L). Male parameres longer, about 1.5 times as long as wide and more rounded dorsally in lateral view than in O. areolaris.
Colour
Body testaceous, sometimes with fuscous areas on meso- and metasoma. Mandibular teeth black. Stemmaticum black or dark brown, ovipositor sheath black.
DNA barcode
The DNA barcode sequences of four Swedish specimens of Ophion ocellaris are available at the BOLD systems database (www.boldsystems.org, BIN. BOLD: ADG0270/ADG3721. Specimen codes: STI-NJBC: Clade 1; 02, Clade 2; 01, 03–04).
Ecology
This species occurs in late summer and autumn, late June–early September and the hosts seem to be various species of Drepanidae (subfamily Thyatirinae) according to Brock (1982). It has mainly been collected in boreal woodland habitats, but has also been attracted to light in semi-open habitats.
Distribution in Sweden
This species is quite common and occurs over most of the country, but is apparently missing in high alpine areas in the north.
Remarks
The holotype male of Ophion fuscicollis was studied and although access to the type of O. ocellaris was denied, the opinion presented here is that the species are synonymous. However, the actual date of publication for the description of either of the species is uncertain and the question of which name has priority over the other remains. In this study the more commonly used name O. ocellaris is used. Also of interest, is that one of the four barcoded specimens forms a separate BIN with a series of specimens from Great Britain. The existence of two distinct clades could indicate the existence of a cryptic species. Despite studying a rather large amount of material, no reliable morphological differences have been detected. The discovery of a presumably cryptic species could of course also mean that the proposed synonymy between O. ocellaris and O. fuscicollis is more complicated. Therefore this study refrains from a formal publication of the synonymy at this time.
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 page 85, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2019.550, http://zenodo.org/record/3476402