Chrysis aswathiae ROSA 2021

Chrysis aswathiae ROSA, 2021 (Figs 7 A-7D, 8A-8D) M a t e r i a l e x a m i n e d: Pondicherry: 4♁♁, Karikal [= Karaikal], South India, [without further information] (NHMW); 1♁: Keraikkal [= Karaikal], II.1962 leg. P. Susai Nathan (Naturalis); 1♀, same locality and collector, II.1963 (RMNH); 1♀, Tanjore province [= Thanjavur, currently Tamil Nadu], Nedungadu, 28.II.1938, P.S. Nathan (RMNH). I n d i a n r e c o r d s: Pondicherry *, Tamil Nadu (ROSA et al. 2021a). D i s t r i b u t i o n: India (ROSA et al. 2021a). R e m a r k s. Chrysis aswathiae was described based on a single male from Tamil Nadu. After that, additional five specimens were found from Pondicherry at RMNH and NHMW, all conform to the original description. At Naturalis two undescribed females were observed, one collected in the same locality where the male of Chrysis aswathiae was found, Karaikal in Pondicherry, and the second one from Tamil Nadu. These females significantly differ from the male of C. aswathiae by larger size and shape of the apical margin of the last tergum with two lateral teeth and a convexity on lateral margin. However, they both belong to the elegans- group, they share the shape of the head and body sculpture with dense, small and subcontiguous punctures. Sex associations in Chrysididae may be often challenging, but in this case, based on experience, the collecting localities and the fact that there are only two Oriental species known in the elegans group, C. aswathiae and C. lapislazulina in China, known on the female sex only, I consider these two unidentified specimens as the undescribed female of C. aswathiae and the observed differences as sexual dimorphic characters. However, a confirmation based on specimens found in copula or based on molecular analyses is needed. A third Oriental species included in the elegans group by Kimsey & Bohart (1991), Chrysis dissimilis DAHLBOM, 1854, was transferred to the scutellaris species-group by ROSA (2023b).