First record of the genus Schizophragma Ogloblin, 1949 (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in Europe

1 Filip Pawluk First record of the genus Schizophragma Ogloblin, 1949 (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in Europe https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17986587 Botanical Garden of the University of Wroclaw, Sienkiewicza 23, 50-335 Wroclaw, Poland, e-mail: [email protected]/ [email protected] Abstract: The genus Schizophragma Ogloblin (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) is recorded for the first time from Europe. One male of an unidentified species, as illustrated, was collected in Niepołomice Forest, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. With this addition, the number of European Mymaridae genera has increased to 25. Key words: Chalcidoidea, fairyfly, Poland, faunistics, West Palaearctic. INTRODUCTION Schizophragma Ogloblin, 1949 belongs to the Anagrus Haliday group of genera of Mymaridae (Lin et al. 2007). Huber (1987) gave a diagnosis and provided a key to its seven known species: S. basalis Ogloblin, 1949, S. bicolor (Dozier, 1932), S. latipennis (Crawford, 1913), S. parvula Ogloblin, 1949, S. peruana Ogloblin, 1949, S. saltensis Ogloblin, 1949, and S. squamosa Ogloblin, 1949. Later, Triapitsyn (2018) transferred S. saltensis, which has an entire clava of the female antenna, to Anagrus and placed it in the stethynioides species group. A few years later, Triapitsyn (2021) described S. mitai Triapitsyn, 2021 from Japan and presented a key to the Old World species, along with new Schizophragma records. The new species was also later recorded from India (Rameshkumar et al. 2023). Recently, Huber et al. (2024) synonymized the fossil genus Palaeopatasson Witsack, 1986 under Schizophragma, and its type species P. grollei Witsack transferred to Schizophragma. The genus currently includes nine nominal species. It reaches its greatest diversity in the Neotropical region, but it is also known from the Nearctic, Oriental, Palearctic, Australasian, and Afrotropical regions (Huber, 1987, Lin et al. 2007, Rehmat & Anis 2014, Koponen & Triapitsyn, 2016). Various Membracidae (Hemiptera) serve as hosts for some species of Schizophragma (Huber 1987). MATERIAL AND METHODS The examined male was collected by T. Grzegorczyk in IBL-2 screen trap in the Niepołomice Forest, Poland and later donated to the author. The specimen was chemically dried by immersion in absolute ethanol for several hours, then in isopropanol for several hours and then for one day in hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). After HMDS evaporated, the specimen was mounted on a triangular cardboard point. A pair of wings and one antenna were ANNALS OF THE UPPER SILESIAN MUSEUM IN BYTOM ENTOMOLOGY Vol. 34 (online 012): 1–5 ISSN 0867-1966, eISSN 2544-039X (online) Bytom, 19.12.2025 2 mounted on a microslide in Canada balsam. A Bresser Science TFM-301 Trino microscope paired with a Canon EOS 250D camera was used to photograph the specimens on slides. For imaging the dried specimen, a Laowa 25 mm f/2,8 2,5-5X Ultra Macro was used. The individual photos were stacked in Helicon Focus 8.0.0 (Helicon Soft Ltd.). All measurements are given in micrometers (µm). RESULTS Schizophragma Ogloblin, 1949 Schizophragma sp. (Figs 1–7) Material examined. Poland: Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Niepołomice Forest, 11.VI.–20. VII.2017, coll. T. Grzegorczyk, IBL-2 screen trap [1 ♂ in author’s collection]. Diagnosis. Male. Body length 730. Head and body brown, antenna pale brown except pedicel, flagellomer 1 and flagellomer 2 slightly lighter, and legs pale brown. Mesosoma (Fig. 2). Frenum with a pair of setae and divided longitudinally; mesophragma projected into gaster, and shallowly notched posteriorly. Antenna (Figs 4–5). Antenna with 11 flagellomers; scape with distinct cross-ridges; all flagellomers with multiporous plate sensilla, longer than wide, and longer than pedicel, each flagellomere almost as long as scape. Wings (Figs 6–7). Fore wing 3.4× as long as wide; length/width ratio 780:230; longest marginal cilia 0.65× maximum wing width; length 150. Hind wing 16× as long as wide, length/width ratio 720:45; longest marginal cilia 2.4× maximum wing width; length 110. Distribution. Poland. Host. Unknown. Fig. 1. Schizophragma sp., male, habitus in ethanol (photo F. Pawluk). 3 Comments. It is probably a new, undescribed species endemic to Europe. However, the occurrence of S. mitai in Europe is also possible. The fore wing of the specimen presented here is very similar to that of S. indica Rehmat & Anis, 2014, as illustrated by Rehmat & Anis (2014). However, until the females are collected, it is not possible to identify or describe a potentially new species based on a single male. Figs. 2–5. Schizophragma sp., male. 2. Mesosoma in ethanol. 3. Habitus, dry-mounted. 4. Scape and pedicel. 5. Antenna (photo F. Pawluk). 4 DISCUSSION This is the first record of Schizophragma in Europe and the third known locality from the Palearctic region. Schizophragma bicolor (Dozier, 1932) was recorded from the Canary Islands (Koponen & Triapitsyn 2016), but it is distributed in the Neotropical and Nearctic region. This record is unlikely to be attributable to an endemic European species and rather reflects a recent expansion. More southern species may extend their ranges to northern Europe, like recently recorded in Finland Anagrus optabilis (Perkins, 1905), for instance (Triapitsyn et al. 2020). The current European entomofauna of Mymaridae comprises 23 genera (Samková et al. 2020), after Caraphractus Walker, 1846 was synonymised under Eustochus Haliday, 1933 by Triapitsyn et al. (2020). Currently, together with the recently recorded Dicopomorpha Ogloblin, 1955, by Pawluk (unpublished data), the number of mymarid genera in Europe has increased to 25. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to T. Grzegorczyk for the donation of Hymenoptera specimens collected in the Niepołomice Forest. Figs. 6–7. Schizophragma sp., male. 6. Fore wing. 7. Hind wing (photo F. Pawluk). 5 REFERENCES Huber J.T. 1987. Review of Schizophragma Ogloblin and the non-Australian species of Stethynium Enock (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae). The Canadian Entomologist 119: 823–855. Huber J.T., Read J.D., Triapitsyn S.V. 2024. Illustrated key to the genera and catalogue of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera) in the Neotropical region. Zootaxa 5557(1): 1–263. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5557.1.1. Koponen M., Triapitsyn S.V. 2016. New records of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) from the Canary Islands and Madeira. Bocagiana 243: 1–4. Lin N.Q., Huber J.T., Lasalle J. 2007. The Australian genera of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). Zootaxa 1596: 1–111. Rameshkumar A., Anand N., Sardar S., Kazmi S. 2023. First report of the fairyfly Schizophragma mitai Triapitsyn from India with notes on S. indica Rehmat & Anis. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(2): 2275222756. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8158.15.2.22752-22756#8158. Rehmat T., Anis S.B. 2014. Record of genus Schizophragma Ogloblin (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in Oriental region, with description of a new species from India. Oriental Insects 48(3–4): 306–311. DOI: 10.1080/00305316.2015.1013179. Samková A., Janšta P., Huber J.T. 2020. Illustrated key to European genera, subgenera and species groups of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera), with new records for the Czech Republic. Zootaxa 4722(3): 201–233. Triapitsyn S.V. 2018. Systematic position of a fairyfly, Anagrus saltensis (Ogloblin, 1949), comb. n. (Hymenoptera, Mymaridae), and description of a new species from Argentina related to it. Entomological Review 98(6): 781–786. Triapitsyn S.V. 2021. A new subgenus and two new species of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) from Kyushu, Japan. Bulletin of the Kyushu University Museum 18: 87–100. Triapitsyn S.V., Koponen M., Vikberg V., Várkonyi G. 2020. Taxonomy, annotated new records and checklist of Mymaridae (Hymenoptera) of Finland, with description of a new species of Eustochus. Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 60(2): 565–589. Accepted: 11 December 2025; published: 19 December 2025 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/