Notes on the Ashmead Types of Hawaiian Eucoilidae (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea)

Abstract

The type specimens of the nine species of Eucoilidae described by W.H. Ashmead in the Fauna Hawaiiensis were studied. This material, presently in the British Museum (Natural History), London, is redescribed, and important morphological characters are illustrated. Lectotypes are designated for four species which Ashmead based on more than one specimen (i.e. Pilinothrix bicolor. Diranchis monticola, Diranchis rufipes. and Hypodiranchis hawaiiensis). and for Trybliographa hawaiiensis, which was based on a single specimen but for which no specified type specimen was known. In the latter case, a single specimen bearing collection and identification data consistent with that specified in the original description, evidently is the one on which Ashmead based his description. T. hawaiiensis is placed in the genus Hypodiranchis Ashmead, and Cothonaspis (Hypodiranchis) pele Perkins 1910 was found to be a junior synonym. Because the name Hypodiranchis hawaiiensis is preoccupied, the next available name, Hypodiranchis pele (Perkins), is proposed as a replacement Ashmead's "male type" or Diranchis rufipes was found to be a male of his Hypodiranchis lanaiensis. Hexacola konensis is placed in Ganaspis Forster, and Pseudeucoila vulgaris Yoshimoto is placed as a junior synonym of it. Aglaotoma rufiventris and Aglaotoma molokaiensls are placed as new combinations in the genus Weidia Yoshimoto. Of Ashmead's nine species, eight are endemic to Hawaii and belong to the Hypodiranchis species complex (which includes Weidia). Ganaspis konensis (Ashmead) appears to be an introduced tropicopolitan species.