Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 7. (Budapest 1956)

Szelényi, G.: Notes on the Merisina (Hym., Chalcidoidea)

males of the other group have very different antennae with lengthened joints, each joint being covered with long hairs (males of febriculosus, fulviventris, destructor). In the present paper, I am describing a few new species which show the same differences, so far as both sexes are known. One of them shows the mandibles unequal, the left mandible being 3-toothed and forms a group with mordellistenae and cognatus, although the latter have the club of the antennae solid. Thus, if we are considering Pseudomerisus as a valid genus, there would remain further groups of species in the genus Homoporus which may form likewisely distinct genera, e. g. those with unequal mandibles, then those with three and two ring joints, respectively, and, finally, those with the above mentioned differences concerning the male antennae. Such a dismemberment of the genus would be, however, (the different groups partly overlapping each other), hardly acceptable at the present state of our knowledge. For this reason, I believe I shall not be wrong if I am considering Pseudomerisus as nothing more than a subgenus of Homoporus, dividing the genus Homoporus in three subgenera altogether, treating them in the following manner : 1 (2) Left mandibles with three, right mandibles with four teeth; male funicle with lengthened joints: Phaenacrinodes subg. n. 2 (1) Both mandibles quadridentate. 3 (4) Antenna! club, although sharply pointed at apex, not prolonged into a distinct stylus; male antennae of the same form as those of the female, with the funicle joints shortly hairy: subg. Pseudomerisus Erd. & Nov. 4 (3) Antennái club prolonged into a distinct, mostly slightly curved stylus; male antennae remarkably differing from those of the female, densely hairy with remarkably long hairs: subg. Homoporus Thorns. The subtribe Merisina originally contained species having the antenna! club pointed at apex and mostly prolonged into a slender stylus, the propodeum with or without neck, but always without spiracular sulci, mostly densely punctate and without distinct median carina. After there had been described a series of species of very different forms as concerns the shape of the antennae and the sculpture of the propodeum, the only common character of this group remained the form of the antennái club, which is at any rate of a specialised form. It is either distinctly solid or at most very delicately segmented, often differing in color from the rest of the funicle, sharply pointed at apex, mostly tapering at the tip and bearing a slender, often slightly curved stylus. Propodeum mostly densely reticulate, this sculpture tending on some species to become effaced especially at the sides ; median carina often clearly developed ; spiracular sulci sometimes very sligtly indicated ; plicae present but in one species. The subtribe comprises at present four genera, which doubtlessly belong here. These are the following : 1. Callitula Spin. 1811 : bicolor Spin. 1811 (generotype), pyrrhogaster Walk. 1833, elongata Thorns. 1878. 2. Merisus Walk. 1834 : splendidus Walk. 1834 (generotype), acutangulus Thorns. 1878. 3. Phaenacra Först. 1878 : luniger Nees, 1834 ( = nubigera Först. 1878, generotype), chalcidiphagus Walsh. & Ril. 1869, flaviscapus Thorns. 1878, probably : discoideus Nees, 1834 and aeneus Nees, 1834? 4. Homoporus Thorns. 1878. a) subg. Homoporus Thorns. 1878: fulviventris Walk. 1835 (generotype), femorata Först. 1841, gibbiscuta Thorns. 1878, chlorogaster Thorns. 1878, crassiceps Thorns. 1878, cupreus Erd. 1953, auratus Erd. 1953, sashegyensis Erd. 1953, filicornis Erd. 1953, laeviusculus Erd. 1953, davicornis Erd. 1953, budensis Erd. 1953, bicolor Erd. 1955 ( = Picroscytus bicolor Erd.), titanes n. sp., Birói n. sp. cephalotes n. sp., brunneiventris n. sp.