Revisions of the Afrotropical genera of Argidae and species of Pampsilota Konow, 1899 (Hymenoptera, Tenthredinoidea)

Abstract

The Afrotropical fauna contains five genera of Argidae. These are keyed. New subjective synonyms, followed by the valid name in brackets, are Calarge Enslin, 1911

Generic placement of the African flea beetle Polyclada maculipennis Bryant and the possible occurrence of the genus Procalus Clark in sub-Saharan Africa (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini)

“…It is plausible that the samples from Venezuela were mixed up with, and then erroneously labelled as being from Cameroon. A similar interpretation about the putative and unlikely disjunct distributions of some Hymenoptera species have been offered by Liston et al (2017) . Similarly, Furth (1998) highlighted that Blepharida semisulcata Achard originally described from Cayenne (French Guiana) is a mislabelled specimen from the Afrotropical Region.…”

Sawflies out of Gondwana: phylogenetics and biogeography of Argidae (Hymenoptera)

“…The genera Tanyphatnidea and Pampsilota (recovered paraphyletic here) have been defined differently by taxonomists (Togashi, 1975;Wei, 1997a;Saini, 2009); however, in Pampsilota the parapenis lobes of males and epistomal sulcus are absent, and dorsolateral corners of the third valvulae of females are not angulated. In addition, Tanyphatnidea is restricted to southern China, Taiwan and the Oriental region, while Pampsilota species are endemic to the Afrotropics (Liston et al, 2017). We did not examine the Chinese species Pampsilota cenchra, although the description by Wei (1997a) suggested high similarity with P. scutellis.…”

“…In clade III, Pampsilota and Afrotropical Arge spp. have a wide distribution in sub-Saharan Africa (Koch et al, 2015;Liston et al, 2017), while the genus Triarge is restricted to South Africa and its austro-temperate flora. Host plants for Triarge are unknown, while larvae of Afrotropical species groups of Arge feed on plants of Geraniaceae found in different natural biomes of shrub, bush and grasslands (Koch et al, 2015).…”

“…Only one species of Sterictiphorinae has been recorded from the Oriental region, Aproceros sikkimensis Saini & Thind, 1992(Saini, 2009; this species occurs in northernmost India and was not included here. No reliable records of Sterictiphorinae exist from the Afrotropical region, except for one of the otherwise Neotropical Sphacophilus (recorded as Sterictiphora afra by Pasteels, 1963); this record is probably based on a mislabelled specimen (Liston et al, 2017). The virtual absence of Sterictiphorinae from the Afrotropical and Oriental regions may have been caused by extinction or failure to colonize these regions.…”