Ogcodes incultus

Overall habitus black (or black-brown): including head, mesonotum, scutellum, and ground color on dorsum of abdomen. The wings are distinctly darkened (especially in the area between the costa and the radial vein), vein M1 is present, cross vein m-cu is absent. The humeri and postalar callosities (rear corners) are light brown to whitish. The abdominal tergites have narrow white posterior bands (fasciae)...in females of uniform width, in males tergites 4 & 5 have wider bands. The legs are typically dark, with lighter knees (i.e. apical tip of the femur and basal tip of the tibia). Average size is ~ 6mm...larger than most O. pallidipennis . [Note below by A. S. on 8/9/14] Osten Sacken's original 1877 description of O. incultus can be read at this BHL link , starting at the very bottom of the page!! After studying long series of specimens, Sabrosky (1944) concluded that O. incultus was a relatively uncommon melanistic form at the end of the spectrum of variation within the species O. pallidipennis , and thus he synonymized O. incultus under O. pallidipennis . The synonymy was also accepted in Sabrosky (1948) and Schliger (1960), although Sabrosky had remarked in his 1944 paper that the extremely large and heavily browned forms known as incultus may possibly merit recognition and that disclaimer was not explicitly retracted in either Sabrosky (1948) nor Schlinger (1960). However, note that despite this synonymy, if one tries to key a specimen of O. incultus in either Sabrosky (1948) or Schlinger (1960) they will most likely miss ending at O. pallidipennis because the key breaks state that its general habitus is brown (rather than black). To correctly key O. incultus one must presumably pay extra careful attention to the qualifier general in that phrase!! A very careful reading of the keys and the discussions of O. pallidipennis in Sabrosky (1944, 1948) and Schlinger (1960) will indicate that specimens with black abdominal tergites and thin white posterior bands; light brown to whitish humeri and postalar callosities; and in particular brown-black infuscated wings (especiallly near the costa)...all of which agrees with Osten Sacken's incultus ...are treated as (a rarely all blackish form of) O. pallidipennis in Sabrosky (1944, 1948) and Schlinger (1960).