Pantolyta Förster, 1856

Genus Pantolyta Förster, 1856

Pantolyta Förster, 1856: 128 , 130, 135. (Type species: Pantolyta atrata Förster, 1861 ).

Acropiesta Förster, 1856: 129 , 131, 135; syn. nov. (Type species: Acropiesta flavicauda Ashmead, 1893 ).

Pantopiesta Maneral, 1939: 170 . (Type species: Cinetus flaviventris Thomson, 1858 ). Synonymised by Nixon (1957).

Remarks. Macek (1993, 1998) revised all known European species of Pantolyta and Acropiesta and discussed the morphological features for distinguishing these two genera. According to Macek, Acropiesta species are characterised by the following characters: (1) mandibles asymmetrical, not prominent (in rest), (2) mouth conus indistinct, (3) labrum almost hidden, stripe-like to level-semicircular, (4) apodemae of aedeagus slightly inflexed anteriorly and not sclerotised, and (5) body length more than 2.5 mm. The genus Pantolyta possesses (1) mandibles almost symmetrical, prominent (in rest), (2) mouth conus pronounced, (3) labrum prominent, triangular, (4) apodemae of aedeagus strongly inflexed anteriorly and sclerotised, and (5) body length less than 2.5 mm.

Actually, species of the former genus Acropiesta have asymmetrical mandibles (the left one bidentate, the right one tridentate), but similar mandibles are known also in the genus Pantolyta ( Fig. 1A). This indicates a considerable variation in the mandibular structures, ranging from asymmetrical to symmetrical state. Pantolyta elegans Chemyreva et Kolyada, 2019 recently described from Japan and the Russian Far East and P. melniki sp. nov.

have an intermediate shape of the mouth conus and semicircular labrum ( Fig. 2B, C). At the same time, all other features mentioned above (characters 1, 4 and 5) testify that P. elegans should be classified as a species of Pantolyta sensu stricto, and P. melniki sp. nov., as a species of Acropiesta . The differences in the male genitalia, i.e. in the degree of sclerotisation and the shape of the apodemae, are also not significant enough to separate these two genera. Moreover, the variation of the latter character is not enough studied. Some undescribed species from Japan possess all characters listed above for the former genus Acropiesta but have the body length about 2.0 mm (Chemyreva, pers. obs.). The body length is found to be more variable in species from the East Palaearctic than in European ones. Thus, we conclude that Acropiesta Förster, 1856 , syn. nov., is a junior synonym of Pantolyta Förster, 1856 , and the following species of the former genus Acropiesta are transferred here to Pantolyta : P. flavicauda (Ashmead, 1893) , comb. nov.; P. flaviventris ( Thomson, 1858) , comb. nov.; P. flexinervis ( Macek, 1998) , comb. nov.; P. macrocera ( Thomson, 1858) , comb. nov.; P. micans ( Macek, 1998) , comb. nov.; P. nigrocincta ( Kieffer, 1909) , comb. nov.; P. nitida ( Thomson, 1858) , comb. nov.; P. pseudosciarivora ( Macek, 1998) , comb. nov.; P. pulchella (Whittaker, 1930) , comb. nov.; P. radialis ( Hellén, 1964) , comb. nov.; P. rufiventris ( Kieffer, 1909) , comb. nov.; P. sciarivora ( Kieffer, 1907) , comb. nov.; P. semirufa (Fouts, 1924) , comb. nov.; P. seticornis ( Kieffer, 1910) , comb. nov.; and P. subaptera (Ashmead, 1893) , comb. nov.