Abstract
Two new species of the genus Rodrigama (Gauld) are described: R. gauldi sp. n. from Ryukyus, Japan and R. takakuwai sp. n. from Taiwan. The genus Rodrigama was known from a single Costa Rican species and these new species are the first representatives of the genus in the Old World. The distribution of these species in the Palaearctic/Oriental Region reinforces the hypothesis that the Poemeniinae originated in the north temperate region and diversified into tropical regions, and that the Costa Rican R. gamezi is a relict of a group that once had a wider distribution. A key to the species of the genus is provided.
Highlights
Wahl and Gauld (1998), in their phylogenetic analysis of Pimpliformes, demonstrated that Rodrigama occupies a basal position in the Poemeniinae and is the sister group to higher poemeniines, and bestowed tribal status (Rodrigamini) on the one Copyright R
Type specimens of the two new species are preserved in the collection of Osaka Museum of Natural History (OMNH), except the holotype of R. takakuwai in the Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute, Taichung, Taiwan (TARI) and one paratype of R. gauldi in the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH)
Adult wasps were hand netted in mature forest of rather high altitude (1,100–1,400m a.s.l.). Both the preceding species and this Taiwanese species have only been found in mature forest
Summary
Wahl and Gauld (1998), in their phylogenetic analysis of Pimpliformes, demonstrated that Rodrigama occupies a basal position in the Poemeniinae and is the sister group to higher poemeniines, and bestowed tribal status (Rodrigamini) on the one Copyright R. Rikio Matsumoto & Gavin Broad / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 20: 65–75 (2011). Species known at the time, Rodrigama gamezi Gauld. They regarded the genus Pseudorhyssa Merrill as the sister group to all other Poemeniinae and erected the tribe Pseudorhyssini. The apparently primitive genus, Rodrigama, was known from only a single species, R. gamezi, described from Costa Rica. The isolated distribution of this archaic genus in Mesoamerica was anomalous and did not fit the hypothesis of an Holarctic origin of the Poemeniinae (Wahl and Gauld 1998). Two new species of Rodrigama have been found, one from the Ryukyu Archipelago, at the Oriental and Palaearctic boundary in Japan, and another from Taiwan
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