Remediation and Curation of the University of California, Riverside Collection of Aphytis (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae)

J. Heraty, J. Pinto and S. Triapitsyn, co-PIs

Summary of the Final Report, 2002

During the course of this project (1 May 1998 - 30 April 2002), the following has been accomplished:

Total number of the specimens remounted from Hoyer's into Canada balsam: 7,408 (a single specimen per each Canada balsam slide), including: - Specimens remounted, labeled, and data-based: 7,292. - Specimens remounted and labeled but not data-based (type material on loan from South Africa): 98. - Specimens remounted during training and labeled but not data-based (Aphytis nr. lingnanensis Compere): 18.

More introductory information is available at the Aphytis project home page at UCR Department of Entomology.

All Hoyer's-mounted specimens, including the types on more than 500 original slides, were remounted into Canada balsam. Al l remounting was done by Vladimir Berezovskiy, a Principal Museum Preparator, and Marina Planoutene, a Postgraduate Researcher. Labeling and data-basing of the specimens were performed by two undergraduate students employed by this project, Jeremiah George and Kaylan Le, as well as by Jung-Wook Kim, Dr. Heraty's Ph.D. student, who assisted in databasing and labeling on a voluntary basis. Day-to-day operations were supervised by Dr. Triapitsyn who also personally selected material for remounting and checked all the labels on the type material before final labeling. Ernest White (the Quarantine SRA at the Department of Entomology, UCR) provided missing data on those specimens of Aphytis that are quarantine vouchers by searching the old quarantine files. When necessary (e.g., in case where the original slide contained a mixture of several species that were not marked), the remounted specimens were identified by S. V. Triapitsyn and J.-W. Kim.

A separate scientific publication is being prepared by S. V. Triapitsyn and J.-W. Kim in which all the remounted and other type material of Aphytis species at UCR will be catalogued and the depositories of the specimens will be indicated.
 

1. 309 name-bearing type specimens (i.e., holotypes, syntypes or cotypes [sic], and neotypes) of the  following 51 species of Aphytis were remounted: A. acrenulatus DeBach & Rosen, A. acutaspidis Rosen & DeBach, A. africanus Quednau, A. amazonensis Rosen & DeBach, A. anneckei DeBach & Rosen, A. anomalus Compere, A. antennalis Rosen & DeBach, A. australiensis DeBach & Rosen, A. cercinus Compere, A. citrinus Compere, A. cochereaui  DeBach & Rosen, A. coheni DeBach, A. comperei DeBach & Rosen, A. dealbatus Compere, A. debachi Azim, A. desantisi DeBach & Rosen, A. equatorialis Rosen & DeBach, A. fabresi DeBach & Rosen, A. fisheri DeBach, A. gordoni DeBach & Rosen, A. griseus Quednau, A. holoxanthus DeBach, A. hyalinipennis Rosen & DeBach, A. ignotus Compere, A. japonicus DeBach & Azim, A. lepidosaphes Compere, A. longicaudus Rosen & DeBach, A. luteus (Ratzeburg), A. malayensis  DeBach & Rosen, A. mandalayensis Rosen & DeBach, A. margaretae  DeBach & Rosen, A. mazalae DeBach & Rosen, A. melinus DeBach, A. obscurus DeBach & Rosen, A. paramaculicornis DeBach & Rosen, A. perplexus Rosen & DeBach, A. philippinensis DeBach & Rosen, A. phoenicis DeBach & Rosen, A. pinnaspidis Rosen & DeBach, A. riyadhi DeBach, A. rolaspidis De Bach & Rosen (nom. nov. pro A. flavus Quednau), A. roseni DeBach & Gordh, A. salvadorensis Rosen & DeBach, A. sensorius DeBach & Rosen, A. setosus DeBach & Rosen, A. spiniferus Compere & Annecke, A. taylori Quednau, A. theae (Cameron), A. tucumani Rosen & DeBach, A. vandenboschi DeBach & Rosen, A. yasumatsui Azim.
    
2. 2,473 type specimens without name-bearing function (i.e., paratypes, allotypes, paralectotypes) of numerous nominal species of Aphytis were remounted.
    
3. 4,626 non-type specimens representing the majority of species listed in Table 3, and collected in more than 50 different countries (see here)

In summary representatives of 85 of 87 valid species of Aphytis present in the UCR collection, representatives of 85 species, including type material of 63 valid species, were remounted from Hoyer's into Canada balsam; the remainder species are known only from the specimens originally mounted in Canada balsam. Numerous unique exemplars were remounted that had been in immediate danger of breakdown in Hoyer's mountant.