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Photo#1884962
eulophid - Elachertus - female

eulophid - Elachertus - Female
Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
August 28, 2020
Size: body 1.7mm
This one keys out to Elachertus using Burks' online key (1). I can add the couplet #s and character states to this post if needed. The wasp is "black" until illuminated under a hemispherical diffuser. According to Shauff's paper, the "Color varies from flat black with little evidence of any metallic sheen to distinctly metallic green."

Using Schauff's key to this genus (2), this wasp keys out to Elachertus argissa as follows:
couplet 1) anterior margin of scutellum & axillae forming a straight line; dorsellum having lateral lobes and being excavated ventrally
couplet 2) the malar suture is straight (vs. curved in E. atus)

Couplet 2 also uses the posterior ocellar length/ocell-ocular length ratio to distinguish between females of these two species (2 in E argissa vs. 1.5 in Elachertus argissa). I get 1.7-1.8 (under the assumption that Schauff's posterior ocellar length = Whitfield's "inter ocellar distance"). For this wasp, that measurement is obviously not much help...
TIA

larger image here

Images of this individual: tag all
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Moved

I will go along with the ID of ...
.. Elachertus, However, you must realize that there can easily be lots of undescribed species around (I found what I believe is an undescribed species of Elachertus in my backyard a few years back). So I rarely trust any species ID of a chalcidoid that is a)not made by an "expert", and/or b) is made only from images (without a specimen in hand).

So I'm saying all that to explain why I'm moving this to Elachertus without putting a species name to it.

 
thanks and understood
I agree with your points about experts and ID solely on the basis of photos. I'm not entirely sure I agree with your "there can easily be lots of undescribed species around" point because this could be the situation with a great many invertebrate taxa and, taken to an extreme, one might never make species calls for that reason. In any event, I included the info from Schauff's key to see what others may conclude, now and in the future. That I appear to have identified the right genus is good enough for me.

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