Mesoclistus rufipes

Mesoclistus rufipes (Gravenhorst, 1829)

Hymenoptera Ichneumonidae Acaenitinae Mesoclistus rufipes

Description

A medium sized and rare wasp. The body is black, the legs predominantly red (though coxae varies from red to black). Yellow areas are found on the inner and outer orbits. The areolet of the forewing is closed, and the notauli are distinct. The Nervellus of the hindwing is intercepted below the upper 0.25. The ovipositor is longer than the abdomen, and the hypopygium is elongated in females.

Mesoclistus cushmanni is a similar but much more northern species that can be distinguished by M. rufipes having a shorter malar space (malar space not more than 2/3 the width the base of the mandible) and the head adorned with yellow areas (head of M. cushmanni completely black).

Ecology

Distribution

M. rufipes is rarely recorded but seems to have a distribution covering much of Europe.

References

Finlands Artdatacenter (2024). LAJI.FI: Acaenitinae. https://laji.fi/sv/taxon/MX.308519 [2024-07-03]

Medvedev, G. S. (1978). Keys to the insects of the European USSR (Opredelitel nasekomykh Evropeiskoi chasti SSSR). Vol: 3 Hymenoptera. Part 3. Akademiia nauk SSSR Zoologicheskii Institut.

SLU Artdatabanken (2024). Artfakta: Acaenitinae. https://artfakta.se/taxa/1000026 [2024-07-03]

Varga, A. (2013). A review of the subfamily Acaenitinae Förster, 1869 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Ukrainian Carpathians. Biodiversity Data Journal, 1, e1008. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.1.e1008

Zwakhals, C. J. (1989). The Acaenitinae from the Netherlands and the host of Acaenitus dubitator (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). Entomologische berichten 49(2), 21–25.

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