Refining the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna: some species of Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) erroneously reported for Brazil

ABSTRACT

To correct errors in previous catalogs and update the Brazilian fauna, thirty-five species of Darwin wasps erroneously reported for Brazil are removed from the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna, belonging to the following subfamilies: Anomaloninae (2 species), Banchinae (1), Campopleginae (8), Cremastinae (2), Cryptinae (8), Phygadeuontinae (3), Pimplinae (8), Tersilochinae (2), and Tryphoninae (1). Most species were incorrectly cataloged due to an incorrect interpretation of the species list created by Costa Lima in 1962, which mentions species occurring in neighboring countries but does not confirm their presence in Brazil. Thus, the Brazilian fauna of Ichneumonidae currently corresponds to 234 genera and 1,038 species.

KEY WORDS:
Biodiversity; CTFB; Ichneumonoidea; inventory; parasitoid wasps

Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) are parasitoid wasps considered one of the largest families in the animal kingdom and natural enemies of a broad range of holometabolous insects and spiders (Broad et al. 2018, Klopfstein et al. 2019). According to Yu et al. (2016), there are about 25,000 known species of Ichneumonidae worldwide, with about 4,420 in the Neotropical region. In Brazil, to date, 1,073 species were recorded, distributed in 240 genera and 28 subfamilies (Fernandes et al. 2024).

During the compilation of data for the species list organized under the framework of the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna, “Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB)”, between the years 2014-2015, some errors, such as homonyms, were found (Fernandes 2015, Araujo and Vivallo 2015). Now, while compiling the distribution of species from Brazilian states, some species erroneously recorded from Brazil were found. Therefore, in order to provide an updated count of the actual number of species present in this country, we are rectifying these errors and excluding the species mentioned below from the list of species previously documented in Brazil, and consequently, from the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna (Fernandes et al. 2024).

List of Darwin wasp species erroneously reported for Brazil

Anomaloninae

1. Ophionellus imitatorius (Blanchard, 1942)

2. Podogaster cactorum Cushman, 1927

Banchinae

3. Meniscomorpha lopezi (Blanchard, 1935)

Campopleginae

4. Campoletis argentifrons (Cresson, 1864)

5. Campoletis curvicauda (López Cristóbal, 1947)

6. Campoplex daritis Schrottky, 1911

7. Hyposoter christenseni (Blanchard, 1946)

8. Hyposoter fugitivus (Say, 1835)

9. Hyposoter rubraniger (López Cristóbal, 1947)

10. Venturia bergi (Brèthes, 1922)

11. Venturia pastranai (Blanchard, 1946)

Cremastinae

12. Hanauella armillataEnderlein, 1921

13. Temelucha platensis (Brèthes, 1917)

Cryptinae

14. Baryceros eucleidis (Blanchard, 1936)

15. Basileucus venturii (Schrottky, 1902)

16. Diapetimorpha brethesi (Schrottky, 1902)

17. Neocryptopteryx metriurus (Spinola, 1851)

18. Neocryptopteryx orientalis Blanchard, 1947

19. Oecetiplex borsani (Blanchard, 1941)

20. Polycyrtus giacomelli Schrottky, 1911

21. Xiphonychidion horsti (Brèthes, 1916)

Phygadeuontinae

22. Chirotica bruchii (Brèthes, 1904)

23. Isdromas lycaenae (Howard, 1889)

24. Mastrus pastranai (Millan & De Santis, 1958)

Pimplinae

25. Apechthis bazani (Blanchard, 1936)

26. Calliephialtes argentinus Blanchard, 1936

27. Clistopyga lopezrichinii (Blanchard, 1941)

28. Itoplectis niobe (Schrottky, 1902)

29. Neotheronia bicincta (Cresson, 1865)

30. Pimpla fuscipes Brullé, 1846

31. Scambus holmbergi (Brèthes, 1904)

32. Tromatobia huebrichi (Brèthes, 1913)

Tersilochinae

33. Stethantyx argentinensis (Blanchard, 1945)

34. Stethantyx parkeri (Blanchard, 1945)

Tryphoninae

35. Netelia oeceticola (Blanchard, 1941)

Remarks

Hanauella armillata was described by Enderlein (1921) based on a female collected in Nov-Dec, 1906 by M. de Mathan. The collection location indicated in the article is “Brasilien, Pebas” (Enderlein 1921, p. 7). However, the Peruvian District of Pebas is one of the four districts that form the Province of Mariscal Ramón Castilla, located in the Department of Loreto, belonging to the Loreto Region, Peru (3°19’11”S, 71°51’41”W). According to Papavero (1971, 1973), Mathan collected from the late 1800s to early 1900s in several cities along the Amazon River, leaving Brazil and going into Peru, passing through Pebas. In this way, he probably added “Brasilien” to the label, as he did not realize that he had already left Brazilian territory towards Peru.

The other 34 species listed herein can be associated to a single error in the literature. The catalogs of Yu et al. (2005, 2012, 2016) list these species as occurring in Brazil based on Costa Lima (1962). However, in some cases Costa Lima provided lists of species from Brazil and its neighboring countries more or less indiscriminately, e.g. “[…] Below, in alphabetical order, is a list of species found in Brazil and neighboring countries, whose ethology is partially known” (Costa Lima 1962: 34; translation and italics by the present authors). Or, in another section, “[…] Below is a list of species whose hosts are known” (Costa Lima 1962: 44), without specifying whether these species were recorded from Brazilian territory, indicating that they are from neighboring countries (mainly Uruguay and Argentina) and that they could potentially be present in the Brazilian fauna. Hence, these species were erroneously listed in the catalogs of Yu et al. (2005, 2012, 2016) and erroneously replicated in Fernandes et al. (2024).

Nevertheless, the species analyzed by Costa Lima, with an indication of Brazilian locality, or material sent to him for identification by Brazilian collectors, were considered valid records from this country. Thus, in addition to the 35 species, six genera are also removed from the CTFB, they are: Hyposoter Förster, 1869 (Campopleginae), HanauellaEnderlein, 1921 (Cremastinae), Oecetiplex Porter, 1987 and Xiphonychidion Porter, 1963 (Cryptinae), Mastrus Förster, 1869 (Phygadeuontinae) and Tromatobia Förster, 1869 (Pimplinae). Therefore, with the corrections made here, the current Brazilian Ichneumonidae fauna comprises 234 genera and 1,038 species.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank José A. Rafael for comments and suggestions. DRRF thanks FAPEAM - Universal Amazonas (process 062.00770/2015), Edital Universal - Chamada MCTIC/CNPq 28/2018 (process 432933/2018-2), and Programa de Capacitação Institucional - PCI/CNPq (process 300722/2022-2). ROA thanks the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo from Chile, for financing his research through the FONDECYT Iniciación #11200014 and FONDECYT Regular #1221879 projects.

LITERATURE CITED

• Araujo R, Vivallo F (2015) Eleven new replacement names in the genus Mesochorus Gravenhorst, 1829 (Ichneumonidae: Mesochorinae). Zootaxa 4021(4): 597-599. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4021.4.10
  » https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4021.4.10
• Broad GR, Shaw MR, Fitton MG (2018) Ichneumonid wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea): their classification and biology. Royal Entomological Society, London, Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects, vol. 7, Part 12, 418 pp.
• Costa Lima A (1962) Insetos do Brasil. Escola Nacional de Agronomia, Rio de Janeiro, Série Didática #14, 12^th Tomo, 2^nd Part, 393 pp.
• Enderlein G (1921) Beiträge zur Kenntnis aussereuropäischer Ichneumoniden V. Über die Familie Ophionidae. Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 82: 3-45.
• Fernandes DRR (2015) Two new replacement names in Ichneumonidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) from the Neotropical Region. Zoologia 32(6): 539-540. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-46702015000600013
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-46702015000600013
• Fernandes DRR, Santos BF, Pádua DG, Araujo RO (2024) Ichneumonidae. In: Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil. PNUD. Available online at: Available online at: http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/fauna/faunadobrasil/2248 [Access: 21/02/2024]
  » http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/fauna/faunadobrasil/2248
• Klopfstein S, Santos BF, Shaw MR, Alvarado M, Bennett AMR, Dal Pos D, Giannotta M, Herrera Florez AF, Karlsson D, Khalaim AI, Lima AR, Mikó I, Sääksjärvi IE, Shimizu S, Spasojevic T, van Noort S, Vilhelmsen L, Broad GR (2019) Darwin wasps: a new name heralds renewed efforts to unravel the evolutionary history of Ichneumonidae. Entomological Communications 1: ec01006. https://doi.org/10.37486/2675-1305.ec01006
  » https://doi.org/10.37486/2675-1305.ec01006
• Papavero N (1971) Essays on the history of Neotropical dipterology, with special reference to collectors (1750-1905). Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, vol. 1, 216 pp.
• Papavero N (1973) Essays on the history of Neotropical dipterology, with special reference to collectors (1750-1905) . Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, vol. 2, 230 pp.
• Yu DS, van Achterberg C, Horstmann K (2005) World Ich neumonoidea 2004: Taxonomy, biology, morphology and distribution. Taxapad 2005. [Database on CD-ROM]
• Yu DS, van Achterberg C, Horstmann K (2012) World Ichneumonoidea 2011: Taxonomy, biology, morphology and distribution. Taxapad 2011. [Database on flash-drive]
• Yu DS, van Achterberg C, Horstmann K (2016) World Ichneumonoidea 2015: Taxonomy, biology, morphology and distribution. Taxapad 2016. [Database on flash-drive]

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• ZooBank register

  https://zoobank.org/5D4F11E6-DB51-4D94-8EB7-6034D83E1464

• How to cite this article

  Fernandes DRR, Santos BF, Pádua DG, Araujo RO (2024) Refining the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna: some species of Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) erroneously reported for Brazil. Zoologia 41: e23104. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-4689.v41.e23104

• Published by

  Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia at Scientific Electronic Library Online (https://www.scielo.br/zool)

Edited by

Editorial responsibility

Gabriel L.F. Mejdalani

Data availability

Data citations

Fernandes DRR, Santos BF, Pádua DG, Araujo RO (2024) Ichneumonidae. In: Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil. PNUD. Available online at: Available online at: http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/fauna/faunadobrasil/2248 [Access: 21/02/2024]

Yu DS, van Achterberg C, Horstmann K (2005) World Ich neumonoidea 2004: Taxonomy, biology, morphology and distribution. Taxapad 2005. [Database on CD-ROM]

Yu DS, van Achterberg C, Horstmann K (2012) World Ichneumonoidea 2011: Taxonomy, biology, morphology and distribution. Taxapad 2011. [Database on flash-drive]

Yu DS, van Achterberg C, Horstmann K (2016) World Ichneumonoidea 2015: Taxonomy, biology, morphology and distribution. Taxapad 2016. [Database on flash-drive]

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  29 Apr 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  14 Dec 2023
• Accepted
  13 Mar 2024