Platylabus ornatus (Provancher, 1875)

(Figures 28, 29)

Phygadeuon ornatus Provancher, 1875: 181, 183 (descr., key).

Platylabus ornatus Cresson 1877: 200 (descr., key); Provancher 1879: 36 (descr., key); Provancher 1883: 305 (descr., key); Provancher 1886: 36 (key); Cresson 1887: 191 (cat.); Dalla Torre 1902: 786 (cat.); Bradley 1903: 283 (distr., key, fig.); Gahan and Rohwer 1918a: 168 (invalid lectotype designation); Brown 1941: 10; Townes 1944: 312 (cat.); Townes and Townes 1951: 281 (distr., cat.); Heinrich 1962b: 747 (descr., distr., neallotype designation, key); Heinrich 1971: 1019, 1975: 774 (distr.); Barron 1975: 523 (notes); Bradley 1978: 16 (distr., host); Carlson 1979: 545 (cat., distr.); Gillespie and Finlayson 1983: 22 (fig., host, key, larva descr.); Yu and Horstmann 1997: 679 (cat.); Yu et al. 2016 (cat.).

Original type series

Holotype ♀, by monotypy (LEUC). Provancher (1875, p. 181) mentioned ‘Un seul specimen ♀ ’ (= only one female specimen) in the original description. Gahan and Rohwer (1918a, p. 168) designated a lectotype, but as Barron (1975, p. 523) acknowledged, there is no need for a lectotype as Provancher clearly mentioned only one specimen. Therefore, this specimen is here referred to as the holotype fixed by monotypy (ICZN 1999, Article 73.1.2) and Gahan and Rohwer’s (1918a, p. 168) designation should be considered an invalid lectotype designation.

Type locality

Canada, Québec. No type locality is given on the holotype labels, but the species has been described in ‘ Les Ichneumonides de Québec’ (Provancher 1875).

Type specimens examined (Figures 28, 29)

Holotype: ‘[Yellow label] 244 // [White label] Platylabus / ornatus /Prov. // [Red label] LECTOTYPE / Phygadeuon / ornatus / PROVANCHER/[Written vertically on right side] Comeau/1940 // [Red lable] HOLOTYPE / Phygadeuon / ornatus / Provancher 244/ Barron ‘71’ (images examined).

Updated distribution (Figure 29)

CANADA: Alberta (Heinrich 1962b; Bradley 1978), British Columbia (Heinrich 1962b; Bradley 1978), Manitoba (Bradley 1978); New Brunswick (Heinrich 1962b; Bradley 1978), Newfoundland and Labrador (Heinrich 1975; Bradley 1978), Nova Scotia (Bradley 1978); Ontario (Bradley 1978), Québec (Provancher 1875; Bradley 1978), Saskatchewan (Bradley 1978); UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: California (Townes and Townes 1951), Maine (Heinrich 1962b), New York (Heinrich 1971), North Carolina (Heinrich 1962b), Washington (Townes and Townes 1951).

Host

Eupithecia intricata (Zetterstedt) (Bradley 1978), Macaria bicolorata Fabricius (Bradley 1978), Macaria granitata Guenée (Brown 1941; Townes 1944), Macaria oweni (Heinrich 1962b; Bradley 1978), Macaria pustularia (Bradley 1978), Macaria sexmaculata Swett (Bradley 1978), Macaria signaria dispuncta Walker (Bradley 1978), Macaria unipuctaria perplexa McDonnough (Bradley 1978) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae).

Male

The first description of a male was provided by Heinrich (1962b, p. 747), who referred to the specimen as the neallotype.

Comments

Bradley (1978, p. 16, fig. 11 reported the species from ‘Newfoundland to British Columbia’, plotting the records on a map without pointing out the Canadian provinces. This is probably why subsequent authors (Carlson 1979; Yu and Horstmann 1997; Yu et al. 2016) did not report the species occurring in Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Yu et al. (2016) also failed to report California and Washington, reported by Townes and Townes (1951, p. 281), as state records for the species. According to Heinrich (1962b, p. 748), these western populations are slightly less melanistic than the eastern ones and could also be interpreted as different subspecies.