Dolichogenidea agilla

General description: 

Original description (Nixon 1972): Female. Wings faintly brownish. Hind femur blackish; hind tibia dull reddish but becoming progressively infuscate towards apex. Head from in front clearly a little transverse (cf. sicarius). Face shiny and finely roughened but lacking dull, evenly rugulose surface of sicarius. Antenna rather long, more powerfully built than that of sicarius; two preapical segments of flagellum about one-and-one-third times longer than wide. Mesoscutum with more distinct punctation than in sicarius or lineipes but still very weak. Metacarp much longer in relation to its distance from apex of radial cell than in sicarius. Posterior, declivous part of propodeum on the whole coarsely rugose. Middle third of edge of vannal lobe virtually without projecting hairs. Inner spur of hind tibia hardly longer than outer and hardly reaching middle of hind basitarsus. Hypopygium tightly infolded along middle line; elsewhere heavily sclerotised and without trace of lateral creases; hypopygium, as defined by its visible sclerotised area, rather short, only about two-thirds as long as hind tibia. Ovipositor sheath about three-quarters as long as hind tibia.
Length. 9, 3-0 mm, without ovipositor.
Material. Holotype. 9- FINLAND: Saaksmaki, 23.vi.1932 (E. Kivirikko), in Helsinki Museum. Paratype. 9. FINLAND: Suomi U., Degero, 28.vi.1945 (A. Saarinen).
The paratype has the ovipositor fully exposed; about one-and-a-quarter times longer than hind tibia, rather thin, straight but down-curved in apical third; hypopygium equally short as in the type but less heavily sclerotised; mesoscutum considerably more sharply and distinctly punctate. In the absence of more specimens, I am accepting this intensification of sculpture as falling within the range of specific variability though in any future reappraisal of the species, this point will need to be given consideration. Comments. In comparison with lineipes, the suture between the mesoscutum and the scutellum is wide and conspicuously costate-foveolate. The rather short ovipositor and the short hypopygium combined with the rather long antenna are the important features for recognising this species. There need be no confusion with the species clustering around infimus since the shape of the spines on the outer side of the hind tibia is quite different.
Additional notes from Shaw (2012): New to Britain. 1 X, England, Northumberland, Scremerston (V.C. 68), reared from the tortricid Dichrorampha plumbagana (Treitschke) in Achillea millefolium roots, coll. 3.i.1985, em. 25.vii.1985 (K. P. Bland). Papp (1988) does not list a host. This species was described from two slightly dissimilar non-reared Finnish specimens (Nixon, 1972). The above specimen is clearly conspecific with the paratype in BMNH (examined).

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith