Chrysis parviocula, Rosa, 2023

Rosa, Paolo, 2023, New records for the Indian cuckoo wasp fauna (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae) with description of two new species and remarks on types of Smith and Cameron, Journal of Natural History 57 (29 - 32), pp. 1396-1433 : 1398-1400

Chrysis parviocula sp. n.

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E6B82547-5626-472C-A5EC-74086DA96E5C

( Figs 1A–1F )

Material examined

Holotype female, India CIBC – SS Palghat [= Palakkad , Kerala] March, 1974/ C.I.B.C. – I.S. Bangalore – 6/Ex-larva feeding on Tamarind pod/C.I.E. COLL. A. 7165/35/ ♀ Chrysis sp. (Tetrachrysis) [ NHMUK] . Paratype: 1♀, INDIA: Kerala, Kozhikode, Peruvannamuzhi , 11.595° N, 75.822°E, 8 November 2021, CCSERLC168, leg. P. G. Aswathi [ SERL] .

Diagnosis

Chrysis parviocula sp. n. ( Figure 1 ) belongs to the amneris group based on the long malar space (3.0 × MOD), absence of transverse frontal carina ( Figure 1B ), clypeus incised apico-medially and fore wing medial cell closed by pale veins ( Figure 1D ). Chrysis parviocula sp. n. can be immediately separated from the other four species in this group based on the colour pattern, with distinctive red to golden highlights on marginal areas of mesoscutum, scutellum, and postero-lateral margin of metasomal terga (vs entirely green in the other species); small and round compound eye ( Figure 1A,B ) (vs large and ovoid); genal carina short and faintly produced ( Figure 1A ) (vs sharp and fully developed below eye to mandible); gena highly expanded, as wide as 2.75 × MOD ( Figure 1A ) (vs around 1 × MOD); metasoma double punctate laterally, with small punctures inserted among larger ones ( Figure 1E ) (vs evenly punctate, with polished interspaces among punctures); T3 apical teeth shortened, broad and mostly angulate, in particular lateral ones ( Figure 1F ) (vs elongate and spiny).

Description

Holotype. Female. Body length 5.5 mm. Fore wing length 3.0 mm.

Head. Brow wide, without transverse frontal carina, punctures deep, contiguous and large (up to 0.6 × MOD), becoming shorter and sparser on vertex and ocellar area; distance between anterior ocellus and upper limit of scapal basin 3 × MOD; punctures on brow deep; punctures between eye and scapal basin until malar space contiguous and similar to those on brow; scapal basin polished, with scattered small punctures laterally and medially; clypeus incised apico-medially, with scattered punctation marginally, polished medially; subantennal space shorter than 1.4 × MOD. OOL 1.1 × MOD; POL 1.9 × MOD; MS 3.0 × MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.7:1.1:0.9.

Mesosoma. Medial pronotal line [= pronotal groove] narrow, deep, almost reaching posterior margin; pronotum with small to medium-sized punctures dorsally (0.2– 0.4 × MOD), with irregularly shaped sculpture, punctures becoming larger and denser laterally; intervals medially slightly rugose, laterally polished with small punctures; mesoscutum densely sculptured, with slightly corrugated intervals, largest punctures occupying most of the medial and lateral bands, becoming shorter and sparser submedially, double punctate marginally, with small dots on interspaces; notauli composed by large, deep, subrectangular foveae larger at base; parapsidal signum [= parapsidal line] discrete; punctures on mesoscutellum sparse medially with slightly rugose intervals; metanotum with distinctive antero-median fovea; punctures large and contiguous; posterior propodeal projections [= propodeal teeth] divergent, straight posteriorly; mesopleuron double punctate, punctures on mesepisternum larger and sparser than on mesepimeron. Fore wing with Rs vein long, reaching the distal margin of the wing; outer veins of medial cell lighter.

Metasoma. Double punctate on all terga; interspaces weakly rugose dorsally on T 1 and T 2, polished laterally on T 1 and T 2; T 2 dorsally with large, even punctures, becoming double laterally; T 3 pit row with 10 relatively small, deep and longitudinally elongate pits ( Figure 1F ); apical margin of T 3 with four short teeth, median two acute, lateral teeth obtuse. Metasomal segments without median longitudinal carina.

Colouration. Body green to blue with golden to red highlights and bands on clypeus, lateral areas of mesoscutum, scutellum and latero-apical margin of metasomal segments; dark blue to black spots on ocelli area, median area of mesoscutum, second and third tergum dorsally. Scape, pedicel and first flagellomere basally greenish, other flagellomeres dark brown. Wings dusky-hyaline, with light brownish veins; outer veins of medial cell particularly lighter.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution

India.

Etymology

The specific epithet parviocula (feminine noun) derives from the Latin adjective parvus (small) and the Latin noun oculus (eye) and refers to the small compound eyes of this species.

Remarks

The amneris species group is a small group including rare species. Currently, only four are known in the Palaearctic region, from the Middle East to Central Asia, and C. parviocula sp. n. represents the first known species from the Oriental region. The group includes: Chrysis amneris Balthasar, 1953 (syn.: C. clypeata Balthasar, 1953 nec Mocsáry, 1889), C. arnoldina Bohart in Kimsey and Bohart [1990] 1991 (repl. name for C. arnoldii Semenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1967 nec Brauns, 1928), C. asperifacies Linsenmaier, 1999 ; C. galathea Semenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1967, and C. parviocula sp. n.

Kimsey and Bohart ([1990] 1991) listed Chrysis arnoldii Semenov-Tian-Shanskij both as a valid species (p. 385, with the replacement name C. arnoldina Bohart ) and as a synonym of Chrysis amneris Balthasar, 1953 (p. 381). Rosa et al. (2017a) considered the synonymy of Chrysis arnoldii with Chrysis amneris doubtful. After examination of the types of Chrysis amneris Balthasar, 1953 (deposited at the Natural History Museum in Prague), I confirm that Chrysis arnoldina and Chrysis amneris represent two different taxa. The female of the former can be distinguished based on a large black spot on S2, which is almost double in size compared to that of the female of C. amneris ; the mesopleuron has complete and deep episternal and scrobal sulcus, formed by distinct and aligned foveae, whereas in C. amneris sulci are narrow and the episternal sulcus is formed by shallow punctures, similar to the punctation of the mesopleuron; the metapleuron is similar to equilateral angle, whereas it is isosceles in C. amneris .

Figures

Figure 1. Chrysis parviocula sp. n., holotype, ♀. A. Habitus, lateral view. B. Head, frontal view. C. Head and pronotum, dorsal view. D. Mesosoma, dorsal view. E. Metasoma, dorsal view. F. Habitus, posterior view. Scale bar: 1 mm.