Platygaster and the Holy Grail

Sunday, November 13, 2022

1:35 PM – 1:50 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 220

Presenting Author(s)

Jessica Awad

Graduate Student
State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart
Gainesville, Florida

Co-author(s)

FT

Francesco Tortorici

University of Torino
Torino, Italy
ET

Elijah Talamas

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Gainesville, Florida
LK

Lars Krogmann

State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Platygaster is the type genus for Platygastroidea, and includes approximately 10% of the described species in the superfamily. Despite its taxonomic importance, its large size and lack of organization are serious barriers to revisionary work. Molecular evidence shows that Platygaster is not a natural group, but sometimes the only way forward is to go back. The type specimen of Platygaster ruficornis (Latreille, 1805) has been missing for nearly 200 years. This "holy grail" of platygastroid taxonomy was recently rediscovered through a combination of careful detective work and happy coincidence. However, its surprising identity has extreme taxonomic implications. We describe the hunt for P. ruficornis, discuss what can be done to retain prevailing usage, and provide insights into the next steps for the division of Platygaster into monophyletic groups.