Norbanus persicus Lotfalizadeh & Rasplus, 2020

Lotfalizadeh, Hossein, Karimpour, Younes, Delvare, Gérard & Rasplus, Jean-Yves, 2020, Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) obtained from common reed, Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. (Poaceae) in Iran with new records and descriptions of two new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 710, pp. 1-35 : 19-23

Norbanus persicus Lotfalizadeh & Rasplus sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:285A4E43-0EF3-452C-9757-A51ACABE9DAA

Figs 13–14

Diagnosis

Relatively large species (3.45–4.17 mm); metallic green mesosoma and brown metasoma; in female all funicular segments long longer than broad, F1 about 3.7 × as long as broad; in male funicular segments filiform, long and not pedicellate; clypeus dorsally strigose; hind margin of first tergite straight or slightly convex in posterior part; fore wing of male and female with basal cell and basal vein entirely bare especially in basal half, postmarginal vein shorter than marginal vein.

Etymology

This species is named after the ancient name of Iran ( Persia).

Material examined

Holotype

IRAN • ♀; West-Azarbaijan Province , Urmia, Häshtïan; 37º47′ N, 44º39′ E; 1680 m a.s.l.; Apr. –early May 2017; Y. Karimpour leg.; ex Phragmites australis ; HMIM.

Paratypes

IRAN – West-Azarbaijan Province • 11 ♀♀, 3 ♂♂; same collection data as for holotype; Apr. 2017; HMIM • 2 ♀♀, 1 ♂; same collection data as for holotype; Apr. 2017; CBGP • 15 ♀♀, 1 ♂; Urmia, Hesar-e Türkmän ; 37º26′ N, 45º13′ E; 1293 m a.s.l.; Apr.–May 2017; Y. Karimpour leg.; ex Phragmites australis ; HMIM • 6 ♀♀; Urmia, Täzehkand-e Qäterchï ; 37º39′ N, 44º58′ E; 1335 m a.s.l.; Apr. –early May 2017; Y. Karimpour leg.; ex Phragmites australis ; HMIM .

Description

Female holotype ( Fig. 13A )

BODY LENGTH. 3.85 mm.

COLOR. Head and mesosoma black, with slight metallic greenish reflections, metasoma brown without metallic reflections. Eyes brownish. Ocelli honey-yellow. Pilosity on the body long and whitish. Mandibles brown, teeth dark brown. Antenna ( Fig. 13C ) brown with scape, light brown to yellow distally, clava yellow. Coxae brown, femora brown medially and yellow apically and basally, all tibiae and tarsi pale yellow, claws and arolia darker. Wings hyaline, tegula and wing venation yellowish-brown ( Fig. 14D ), wing setae dark.

HEAD. Reticulate, lower face finely striated, striation not reaching halfway to level of toruli; head in dorsal view slightly wider than mesosoma (18:15) ( Fig. 13B ), 2 × as broad as long (18:9). Scrobes shallow, almost invisible in dorsal view. Temple short, in dorsal view a little less than half length of eye ( Fig. 13B ). POL slightly longer than OOL (35:33) and 2.3× distance between anterior and posterior ocelli. Head in frontal view 1.23 × as broad as high ( Fig. 13E ); malar space 0.64 × eye height (35:55). Eyes separated by 1.7 × their height; eye height about 1.48 × length; anterior margin of clypeus emarginate ( Fig. 11E ); lower margins of toruli distinctly above level of lower margins of eyes ( Fig. 13E ). Antennal formula: 11263; antennal scape 5.7× longer than wide (80:14), longer than eye height (33:25), reaching to beyond median ocellus; pedicel plus funicle 1.16 × as long as head width (70:60); pedicel in dorsal view 2 × as long as broad and 1.8× as long as anelli; all funicular segments longer than broad ( Fig. 13C ), flagellum slightly clavate, 1 st anellus transverse, the second quadrate, about 1.8 × as long as the first (9:5), F1 1.8× longer than pedicel and longer than each of F2–F6, relative measurements: F1 (54:13), F2 (45:15), F3 (40:15), F4 (35:15), F5 (29:16), F6 (25:17); clava 3.05 × as long as broad and slightly longer than combined length of F5 and F6 (55:54), with conspicuous spicula at apex; each funicular segment and 2 basal claval segments at least with 2 sparse rows of placoid sensilla.

MESOSOMA. In dorsal view 1.47 ×as long as broad, mesosomal length:120, width: 75, height: 65. Pronotum 3.2× as broad as long (62:19); mesoscutum 1.1× as broad as long (85:75), dull, finely reticulate, with long white setae. Notauli incomplete, reaching to about half length of mesoscutum, with reticulations on lateral lobes of mesoscutum finer medially. Scutellum slightly shorter than mesoscutum (84:98) and about as wide as long, moderately convex, frenal line absent, but frenal area with finer reticulation than rest of scutellum, with normal pilosity. Upper mesepimeron smooth. Metapleuron and dorsellum uniformly reticulate. Propodeum 0.57 × as long as scutellum (48:84), uniformly reticulate except two small depressions near its anterior margin submedially, spiracle oval and separated from metanotum by its lesser diameter.

FORE WING ( Fig. 13A, D ). Length 2.40 × width (220:92); with basal cell and basal fold glabrous; costal cell with one row of setae on ventral surface and a few additional setae distally; basal cell open below; speculum large, extending to stigmal vein; wing pilosity including marginal fringe short; stigma hardly capitate. Relative measurements, costal cell: 85; M: 37; S: 17; PM: 28.

METASOMA ( Fig. 13D ). Ovate acuminate, dorsally slightly reticulate-imbricate, except for T1 which is mainly smooth, 2× as long as broad (136:68), slightly shorter than head plus mesosoma (136:145), and 1.24 × as long as mesosoma (136:110); hind margin of T1 straight, T1 about ⅓ of metasoma length (45:136); hind margins of T2 and T3 straight. Ovipositor sheaths short, not visible in dorsal view ( Fig. 13A ).

Male ( Fig. 14B )

Smaller than female. Scape and pedicel usually yellowish-brown, exceeding level of vertex by slightly less than one quarter scape length ( Fig. 14B ); funicular segments long and thin, with uniform width, covered with whorls of long and dense setae; pedicel plus flagellum 0.74 × head plus mesosoma; proximal funicular segments usually not widened distally, F1–7 gradually decreasing in length, each segment with more than one row of placoid sensilla.

Variation

Body length of females varies from 2.67–5.40 mm and males from 3.45–4.17 mm. Antennae of female in smaller specimens entirely yellow. Metasoma and femura of female dark-brown to dark in some specimens. Metasoma of males darker than females. Wings slightly fuscate, especially in larger specimens but entirely hyaline in smaller specimens.

Biological association

Host unknown. This species was reared from Phragmites australis in northwest Iran. Within the reared phytophagous insects, Chilo phragmitella (Hübner, 1810) ( Lepidoptera : Crambidae ) is its most likely host.

Distribution

Only known from Iran.

Remarks

The species closely resembles N. tenuicornis Bouček, 1970 known from Europe, Africa and China. It mainly differs in body size and coloration, and some antennal characters. Detailed diagnostic features of both species are provided in Table 3.

The male of this species is similar to that of the genus Gugolzia Delucchi & Steffan, 1956 in having the antennae inserted far above the center of the face, but the distinct antennal spicula of N. persicus Lotfalizadeh & Rasplus sp. nov. (less visible in Fig. 14C , due to whorls of long and dense setae) runs it to the group of pteromalids with spiculated antennae that males in the genus Gugolzia miss. In addition, the

female shares 2-segmented annelli (vs 3-segmented annelli in Gugolzia ), distinctly spiculated antennae and distinctly small prepectus runs to the genus Norbanus .

The key to the species of Norbanus in the Palaearctic ( Rizzo & Mitroiu 2010) was updated (see Appendix), including the female and male of the new species of Norbanus described above, N. rasplusi Lotfalizadeh, 2015 ( Lotfalizadeh 2015) as well as the male of N. tenuicornis .

Figures

Fig. 13. Norbanus persicus Lotfalizadeh & Rasplus sp. nov., paratype, ♀ (HMIM). A. Lateral view. B. Head in dorsal view. C. Antenna. D. Metasoma in dorsal view. E. Head in frontal view.

Fig. 14. Norbanus persicus Lotfalizadeh & Rasplus sp. nov., paratype, ♂ (HMIM). A. Lateral view. B. Head in lateral view. C. Antenna. D. Fore wing. E. Dorsal view.

Fig. 11. Homoporus febriculosus (Girault, 1917), female. A. Lateral view. B. Antenna. C. Head in frontal view. D. Metasoma in lateral view. E. Head in dorsal view.