Porizon

For many years the name Porizon was applied to various Tersilochinae, especially to an assemblage of species (now placed in the genus Barycnemis) which did not include Porizon moderator in the sense of Fallen or of subsequent authors (moderator auct. being placed in Tersilochus). Accordingly, Viereck (1914) proposed the name Porizonidea to apply to Porizon of authors and suppressed Tersilochus as a synonym of Porizon. Roman (1932) discovered that I. moderator Linnaeus is a species of Campopleginae, but made no adjustment in the application of the name Porizon. Townes (1945) applied the name Tersilochini to "Porizonini" of authors (cf. Hincks, 1945), but the name Porizon continued to be used sporadically for various Tersilochinae, particularly before Townes and Townes (1951) applied the name "Porizonini" to the Campoplegini. Townes (1965) applied the name Porizon to Campoplex paniscus Gravenhorst, which he distinguished from "moderator Linnaeus." Horstmann (1970) discovered that Roman (1932) and Townes (1965) had not correctly identified the moderator type specimen, and had incorrectly suppressed Nemeritis cremastoides Holmgren as a synonym of moderator. Horstmann indicated moderator to be a species of Venturia; he erected the genus Leptocampoplex (which see) for cremastoides (i.e. Porizon sensu Townes [1965, 1970], in part), and placed paniscus, with uncertainty, as a synonym of Macrus filiventris Gravenhorst (see Macrus). As a consequence of the findings of Horstmann (1970), Townes (1971) indicated that Venturia should be suppressed as a synonym of Porizon. ~In 1972 I borrowed a specimen of Porizon moderator from Dr. Horstmann and learned that the Nearctic Phaedroctonus temporalis Cushman is a junior synonym of moderator. In my opinion, Porizon is recognizable as a genus distinct from either Venturia or Campoplex, the separation from Campoplex being more subjective, as is suggested by Townes (1945) placement of the species here included in Porizon and by the fact that Townes (1970) continued to treat Phaedroctonus as a synonym of Campoplex. ~There had never been much doubt that Fallen had intended the name Porizon to apply to what we now call Tersilochinae (cf. Hincks, 1945), and Horstmann (1970, 1971) studied a specimen of Probles rufipes (Holmgren) which had been identified as Porizon moderator by Fallen. For that reason, Horstmann (1970) suggested that an application for the suppression of the names Porizon and Porizontinae should be made to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, and Fitton and Gauld (1976) suggested that the case needed to be referred to the Commission. If the facts revealed by Horstmann (1970) had been established soon after Roman (1932) published on the identity of Ichneumon moderator, it might then have been logical to seek a ruling that would have made Tersilochus rufipes Holmgren the type-species of Porizon. Acceptance of I. moderator Linnaeus as the type-species of Porizon would leave us with a zoological rather than nomenclatural problem, and would eliminate any need for making an application to the Commission. I believe that the option of regarding the nomenclatural problem as settled and striving to solve the zoological one is the option which would be most uniformly accepted. I believe that Dr. Horstmann concurs with me on this, and I am hopeful that Drs. Fitton and Gauld will also. ~Porizon is a small genus of Holarctic and Neotropic (southern Mexico) distribution. Most of the species are parasitic on microleptidoptera which feed on coniferous trees, especially cone moths and needle miners. P. transfuga (Gravenhorst), which is placed in Porizon only provisionally, parasitizes Gracilaria syringella (F.), the lilac leaf miner, and two specimens of cupressi (Ashmead), which has otherwise been reared only from conifer-feeding hosts, were reared from a leaf tier on Rhamnus purshianus.

Porizon is a genus of parasitoid wasps belonging to the family Ichneumonidae.

The species of this genus are found in Europe and Northern America.

Species:

Porizon agilis Cresson Porizon albistriae (Horstmann, 1987)