Conostigmus nigripes

Conostigmus nigripes (Kieffer, 1906)

Species Comments and History. Kieffer (1906) described this species from a male specimen or specimens collected in Santa Clara, California. The female of the species is unknown. Kieffer (1906) includes this species in a key to male species that are closely related to C. schwarzi Ashmead, 1893 apart from the antennae (which is logical because the type of C. schwarzi is female and there is sexual dimorphism in the antennae). Kieffer (1906) differentiates this species from others in the key by the following characters: “Beine schwarz; 2. Fühlerglied die Hälfte des 3. Erreichend” (pg. 258). The description further adds, “Wangen ohne Furche”, which we interpret as the absence of the facial sulcus (Kieffer, 1906). The rest of the description and later redescription relies on antennal characters, microsculpture and coloration (Kieffer, 1906; 1914).

The location of the type material is unknown, and the characters given in the description are common across Conostigmus. We consider Conostigmus nigripes as a species inquirenda.