Sirex vates Mocsáry, 1881

3.3.9. Sirex vates Mocsáry, 1881

Sirex vates Mocsáry, 1881 , Természetrajzi Füzetek, 5 (1): 36–37.

Material examined.

No material examined, general description of female translated from the original description in Mocsáry, (1881).

General description of female.

Antennae with 21 segments, robust, blackish, covered with dark bristles. Abdomen dark bluish, dorsal segments II – VII completely silky, VIII – IX glossy, covered with sparsely setae; cornus short, conical, basal part completely smooth, apex pointed and rough; ovipositor shorter than abdomen. Legs blackish, tibiae and tarsi of fore and middle legs rust-colored. Wings sub-hyaline with violet sheen; apex slightly smoky, darkened part developed in the basal-middle part, veins black; costa yellowish-brown. Holotype ♀ length 31 mm.

General description of male.

Male unknown.

Distribution.

Sichuan (Guangyuan City) (as in the original description).

Host.

Unknown

Note.

The original publication did not specify type specimen numbers or deposition locations, though the specimens are presumably preserved in Hungarian National Museum, Budapest. This species seems not to have been collected after the original description. According to the description, this species has distinctive characteristics (e. g. a dark brownish band before pterostigma, which might be similar to that of S. nitobei ). It is also worth noting that there are conflicting descriptions of the abdominal colors in literature. In Xiao and Wu (1983) and Xiao et al. (1992), it is indicated that abdomen is blackish without metallic reflections. However, the terga II – VII are dull yellowish-brown and terga VII – IX blackish in the description of Quinlyn et al. (2019) (In the original description, abdomen dark bluish, dorsal segments II – VII completely silky, VIII – IX glossy). Existing descriptions of the morphological features align perfectly within the variation range of S. nitobei . This suggests that the species might be merely a synonym of S. nitobei , but this suspicion needs to be confirmed by the examination of the type specimen.