Pseudagris brunnea Gusenleitner, 2007

Selis, Marco, 2023, Taxonomic revision of the Afrotropical genus Pseudagris de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae), with description of four new species, Zootaxa 5315 (3), pp. 201-230 : 206-209

Pseudagris brunnea Gusenleitner, 2007

( Figs. 3a–d , 13c )

Pseudagris brunnea Gusenleitner 2007: 83 ,

♀ —“ RSA, Maputoland, Tembe Elephant Park , Jozini ” (holotype OLML).

Diagnosis. This species can be recognized by the following combination of characters: male clypeus strongly tapering and almost pointed apically with weak longitudinal carinae, F11 of male digitiform and straight with rounded apex, apical margin of female clypeus narrow and 0.23× as wide as clypeus width, longitudinal carinae of female clypeus sharp below and blunt above, female mesosoma depressed and elongate with mesoscutum and scutellum flattened in an even surface, metanotum short and weakly oblique, dorsal faces of propodeum mostly impunctate with very sparse punctures, touching behind metanotum.

Material examined. HOLOTYPE OF PSEUDAGRIS BRUNNEA : ♀, labeled: “HOLOTYPUS [red label] // RSA— Maputoland / Tembe Elefant Park / Jozini, 22. 1. 2003 / leg. M. Snížek // ♀ // Pseudagris / brunnea nov. spec. ♀ / J.Gusenleitner,det.2006 / Holotypus // Synagris / (Pseudagris) / junodiana (Schulth.) / J.Gusenleitner,det.2012 // Biologiezentrum Linz, / Austria (LI) / ex. Coll. J. Halada / Eingang 2003” (OLML). KENYA: Kambe NW Mombasa, 23.II.2022, leg. J. Schwarz, 1♂ (MJSK).

Description. Male. Body length 6.5 mm; fore wing length 6.0 mm.

Head 1.15× as wide as long in frontal view. Clypeus in frontal view about as long as wide, sides of free apical part strongly tapering to a rounded point, two dull longitudinal carinae diverging from apex to basal half, area between carinae flattened; clypeus in lateral view more convex basally. Distance from posterior ocellus to occipital carina 1.75× as long as the distance from posterior ocellus to inner eye margin. Gena 0.4× as wide as eye at bottom of ocular sinus; occipital carina complete, shortly lamellate on gena, weaker but sharp on vertex. F1 1.9× as long as wide; F2–F10 longer than wide, F11 rounded in section, finger shaped and nearly straight in lateral view, apex rounded and reaching base of F9. Mesosoma 1.3× as long as wide. Pronotal carina complete and shortly lamellate dorsally. Mesoscutum as wide as long, barely convex in lateral view. Scutellum nearly flattened, on same level of mesoscutum. Metanotum short and oblique, with an indistinct anterior horizontal face and a short posterior vertical one. Epicnemial carina blunt and irregular due to punctures, reaching pronotal margin. Propodeum in lateral view shortly prolonged behind metanotum and then sloping vertically; dorsal faces distinctly convex and touching behind metanotum, separated from other faces; lateral faces weakly convex; all carinae absent. T 1 in dorsal view 1.7× as wide as long; T 2 in dorsal view wider than long, apical reflexed margin lamellate and distinct from rest of surface; S2 with shallow depression on basal half, in lateral view more convex basally.

Clypeus dull and shagreened, sparsely micropunctate. Interantennal area and lower part of ocular sinus impunctate. Frons shagreened, with sparse and very shallow punctures; vertex with deeper punctures, interspaces with few scattered micropunctures; gena with few scattered punctures and a series of punctures along eye margin. Pronotum, mesoscutum and scutellum with deep sparse punctures, interspaces about equal to diameter of punctures, punctures more scattered on scutellum; ventral corners of pronotum smooth. Metanotum with irregular shallow punctures, interspaces larger than diameter of punctures. Mesepisternum punctured similar to pronotum, but punctures larger and shallower; epicnemium microreticulate with a silky shine. Metaepisternum mostly smooth. Tegula dull, shagreened. Dorsal faces of propodeum almost entirely smooth, with some large punctures along margins; posterior face smooth and strongly shiny, with few barely visible punctures along dorsolateral margins; lateral faces impunctate with few shallow punctures along posterodorsal margins. T1–T2 dull and shagreened, with very sparse and fine punctures, some stronger punctures along lateral and apical margins of T2; T3 with sparse and fine punctures, becoming sparser and less evident on following tergites; T6–T7 shagreened and micropunctate; S2 with sparse shallow punctures, slightly more evident than on T2; S3–S7 similar to respective tergites, but sculpture finer.

Head and mesosoma with short brownish setae; clypeus with grayish pubescence; metasoma with dust-like brownish pubescence, short erect setae on apex of S2–S7.

Genitalia in Fig. 13c .

Black; following parts dark red: mandible, clypeus, most of scape, interantennal space, narrow line along inner margin of lower lobe of eye, most of gena, pronotum except posterior and lower corners, scutellum, metanotum, tegula and parategula, broad longitudinal line on mesepisternum, dorsal faces of propodeum, margins of posterior and lateral faces of propodeum, T1 except vertical face, sides and apical band on T2, most of T3–T7, whole S1, basal spots and apical margin of S2, apical bands on S3–S6, most of S7, whole legs; ventral side of flagellum ferruginous. Wings fuscous with brassy and purplish reflections.

Female. No female specimens were available for direct study, therefore the original description is here translated: “Black ground color, the following are reddish-brown: mandibles, clypeus, band on the inner margin of eye from clypeus to gena, gena completely, back of the head above mandibles, a cross-shaped spot from antennal insertions to anterior ocellus, scape completely, lower face of the flagellum, pronotum almost completely, spots on upper and lower parts of mesepisternum, scutellum, metanotum, tegula and parategula, propodeum except for concavity and lateral faces, T1 except the base, a narrow apical band on T2, T3–T6 almost completely, S1, S5–S6 and legs. Wings heavily darkened brownish with an iridescent sheen. Clypeus slightly longer than wide (4.3:4.0), its slightly protruding “emargination” is slightly narrower than the distance between antennal insertions (1.7:2.0). The clypeus is more convexly curved at the base in lateral view and has carinae extending from the apical corners, reaching two thirds of the length of clypeus. Between the keels the clypeus is shagreened with few small dots. The clypeus is densely punctured at the sides of the keels and at the base. There are no setae on the clypeus, only a narrow zone with a silvery pubescence is present at the base. The scapi are very finely and densely punctured.Above the antennal insertions there are densely micropunctate areas without macropunctures. The frons and the vertex are very flat and not densely punctured, the spaces between the punctures are micropunctate. The genae are finely punctate. The pit on vertex is narrowly divided in the middle and slightly larger than one ocellus. The pronotum and the mesoscutum are evenly densely punctured (interspaces are very narrow). The mesepisternum is coarser and the scutellum is punctured somewhat more sparsely than the mesoscutum. The lower portion of the pronotum and the mesepisternum in front of the epicnemial carina are impunctate. The pronotum has a complete narrow carina towards the anterior face and is broadly rounded on humeri. The metanotum, which falls obliquely towards the concavity of the propodeum, is punctured at the top roughly like the scutellum. The propodeum is rounded on the transitions from the dorsal faces to the lateral faces. The dorsal faces are punctate similar to the scutellum. The concavity is almost entirely impunctate and has a silky sheen. The lateral faces of the propodeum are very sparsely punctate, the metaepisterna are impunctate. Both parts have a silky sheen. The tegulae are very finely punctate and have a silky sheen like the legs, which have no punctures. T1 is broader than long when viewed from above (9.0:5.0) and has only a few, barely recognizable punctures. T2 is punctured very sparsely, but the punctures become denser towards the apical margin. On the tergites the punctures decrease in size from T2 to T5 and T6 is only shagreened, except for the punctate apical margin. S2 is flat in lateral view and then, after a short arc, falls steeply to the basal furrow. S2 is more evenly, densely and coarsely punctate than T2 and has a shallow median depression. S3–S5 are finely punctate, S6 only micropunctate. Pale setae on the frons barely half as long as ocellar diameter, shorter on vertex and much longer on back of head. Setae on thorax extremely short (one fourth to one third of ocellar diameter), only on metanotum a little longer. Abdomen with dusty pubescence, on the distal portion of T6 the setae correspond to that of thorax. Length: 13 mm.”

Distribution. Kenya *, South Africa ( Gusenleitner 2007) ( Fig. 14 ).

Notes. Pictures of the holotype are available at ZOBODAT (2022).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Pseudagris brunnea Gusenleitner, 2007, male. a, habitus. b, head. c, antenna. d, metanotum and propodeum.

FIGURE 13. Male genitalia: aedeagus in ventral view, aedeagus in lateral view, volsella. a, Pseudagris albicauda (von Schulthess, 1923). b, P. apicalis sp. nov. c, P. brunnea Gusenleitner, 2007. d, P. carinata (de Saussure, 1863). e, P. nigrithorax sp. nov. f, P. nigrorufa sp. nov. g, P. pygmaea Gusenleitner, 1998.

FIGURE 14. Distributional map of Pseudagris species.