Bruchophagus asphodelinae Askew & Stojanova, 2019

Delvare, G., Escolà, A. Ribes, Stojanova, A. M., Benoit, L., Lecomte, J. & Askew, R. R., 2019, Exploring insect biodiversity: the parasitic Hymenoptera, chiefly Chalcidoidea, associated with seeds of asphodels (Xanthorrhoeaceae), with the description of nine new species belonging to Eurytomidae and Torymidae, Zootaxa 4597 (1), pp. 1-90 : 34-38

Bruchophagus asphodelinae Askew & Stojanova sp. n.

( Figs 15 , 16A–G; Tab. 4 , 5 )

Type material. Holotype ♀: BULGARIA, Black Sea coast , Nos Kaliakra Cape, ex fruit of Asphodeline lutea collected 22.viii.2007 (A. M. Stojanova) (in BMNH) . Allotype ♂: BULGARIA, Rhodope Mountains, 2 km south of Novo selo , ex fruit of A. lutea collected 19.iii.2002 (A. M. Stojanova) (in BMNH) . Paratypes. 38 ♀ 30 ♂, 4 in BMNH, 4 in NMS, the rest in RAPC and ASPC) . Same data as allotype (24 ♀ 19 ♂, in ASPC) ; same data as holotype (4 ♀ 1 ♂, in ASPC) ; same data as allotype except fruits collected 27.vi.2010 (A. M. Stojanova) (10 ♀ 10 ♂, in ASPC) .

Other material: BULGARIA, Rhodope Mountains, 5 km north of Isperihovo , ex fruits of A. lutea collected 18.vi.2000 (A. M. Stojanova) (2 ♀, in ASPC) ; ITALY: Sicilia, Vizzini, Monte Iblei , SE Lago Dirillo, contrado Rubalé, 420 m, 37.10778°N 14.72578°E, ex seeds of Asphodeline lutea , 19.vi.2014, adults emerged 07-15.iv.2015 (G. Delvare) (vouchers GDEL1711 ♀, GDEL1712 ♀, GDEL1713 ♀, GDEL1714 ♀, in CIRAD and 16 ♀ 3 ♂, in GDPC) ; same locality host plant and collector, 350 m, 37.12103°N 14.72166°E, 22.vi.2014 (10 ♀ 6 ♂, in GDPC) .

Etymology. Named after the host plant.

Condition of female holotype. Specimen complete, glued by right side to rectangular card.

Description of female holotype. Body length 3.7 mm (range in type series 2.4–3.9 mm). Body black with white setation; legs black, apices of femora very narrowly testaceous, inner face of protibia and bases of meso- and metatibia very narrowly testaceous, tarsi brownish; wings clear, venation testaceous, setation white.

Head in dorsal view slightly more than 2× as broad as long, relatively transverse ( Fig. 16B ); temples 0.3× eye length; POL about 1.2× OOL, OOL 3.75× OD, with a small area of fine, reticulate sculpture between posterior ocellus and eye. Head in frontal view ( Fig. 16A ) 1.5× as broad as high; height of eye 1.5× malar spaces; mouth 1.4× malar space. Lower edge of antennal toruli slightly nearer anterior margin of clypeus than lower margin of anterior ocellus; outer margin of antennal scrobes not raised ( Fig. 16A ). Clypeus smooth, slightly protruding, anterior margin almost straight with a small median depression; lower face with radiating wrinkles originating from sides of clypeus and punctured laterally; coriaceous stripe visible between clypeus and lower edge of antennal toruli; setation oriented downwards on face, outwards on the punctured frons. Gena buccate with punctured sculpture and reticulate area at lower edge of eye; malar sulcus distinct and complete. Surface of scrobal depression with superficial squamose sculpture.

Antenna ( Fig. 16C ) 11153; scape linear, about 4.0× as long as broad. Pedicel 1.2× as long as broad; length of pedicel plus flagellum about 0.8× breadth of head; F1 plus anellus about 2× as long as broad, F1 stouter than pedicel and about 1.3× as long as broad; F2 and F3 as long as broad; F4 and F5 weakly transverse; clava 2.3× as long as broad, apparently 3-segmented but effectively 2-segmented with fusion of the last and penultimate claval segments and incorporating the seventh flagellar segment (C1+C2+3); a single row of MPS on each funicle and claval segment.

Mesosoma in dorsal view 1.5× as long as broad ( Fig. 16E ); in lateral view ( Fig. 15 ) 1.4× as long as deep with dorsal surface of mesoscutum and mesoscutellum weakly arched. Pronotum transverse, 3.5×as broad as long; mesoscutum 1.6–1.7× as broad as long, equal in length with mesoscutellum, notauli distinct; mesepisternum with anterior margin straight with some convexity only in front of mesocoxae; epicnemial carina absent; propodeum declived at an angle of about 120° to plane of mesonotum. Mesosoma dorsally with strong umbilicate reticulate sculpture, the areoles slightly smaller on mesoscutellum than on disc of mesoscutum and with only a few small finely reticulate interspaces laterally on pronotum and mesoscutellum ( Fig. 16E ). Lateral panel of pronotum and prepectus reticulate squamose; mesopleuron surface irregularly areolate. Propodeum with broad flat median area poorly delimited from callus, with superficial carinulae and fine reticulate sculpture; callus with coarse reticulate sculpture and dense setation. Procoxa with flat anterior surface; metacoxa with areolate longitudinal haired area dorsally.

Fore wing ( Fig. 16F ) 2.2× as long as wide, costal cell as long as wing width; stigmal and postmarginal vein respectively 1.6× and 1.9× as long as the short marginal vein. Stigmal vein straight; stigma about half as wide as its distance from anterior margin of wing; parastigma with 2 sensilla placodea, uncus with 2 narrowly separated pairs of placodea. Basal cell sparsely setose, speculum narrow, not extending beyond base of marginal vein; costal cell setose. Setation white.

Metasoma. Gaster ( Fig. 15 ) relatively longer than in B. abscedus or in B. ribesi from A. albus seeds, about 1.2× as long as head plus mesosoma, in lateral view 1.8× as long (excluding ovipositor) as high; GT4 the longest tergite, its dorsal exposed length 1.2× that of GT3, with only a single sparse row of dorsolateral setae; GT5 and GT6 entirely but sparsely setose; syntergum not upturned, 1.4× as broad as long; exposed part of ovipositor sheath about 0.7× as long as syntergum.

Male. Length 2.7–2.9 mm. Resembles female in colour.

Antenna ( Fig. 16G ) with scape about 3.0× as long as broad, swelling present but not prominent, pedicel plus flagellum 1.25× as long as breadth of head; funicle of five petiolate segments, F 1 in profile almost 2× as deep as pedicel with body of segment 1.4× as long as broad; clava 2-segmented, 3× as long as broad; setae on funicle segments rather stout, arranged in about 4 irregular and overlapping whorls dorsally on F1 and in 2 irregular whorls on F2 to F5.

Metasoma. Gaster including petiole shorter than mesosoma (8:9), shaped much as in B. abscedus; petiole occupying 0.3× total length of gaster, reaching slightly beyond apex of metacoxa, its dorsal surface just over 2× as long as broad.

Diagnosis. Both sexes. Species of medium size (2.4–3.9 mm); pronotum transverse, 3.5× as wide as long; punctutation of mesonotum dense with narrow interspaces showing no coriaceous sculpture; anterior outline of mesepisternum straight.

Female. OOL 3.75× as long as posterior ocellus diameter; POL 1.2× as long as OOL; antennal flagellum 9- segmented with funicle clearly 5-segmented and clava apparently 3-segmented but effectively 2-segmented with the penultimate and terminal segments being closely fused. Setation of fore wing entirely white; stigmal and postmarginal veins respectively 1.6× and 1.9× as long as marginal vein. Gaster 1.2–1.4× as long as mesosoma with ovipositor sheaths only slightly upturned.

Male. Swelling of scape hardly prominent, funicle 5-segmented and clava 2-segmented, the two claval segments closely approximated but connected by a suture not a constriction.

Recognition. The female of B. asphodelinae is distinguished from that of B. abscedus by the segmentation of the flagellum, here with 5 funicle segments (6 in B. abscedus ), including a definitely 5-segmented funicle and an effectively 2-segmented clava comprising flagellar segment 7 plus fused flagellar segments 8 and 9. B. asphodelinae differs from B. ribesi and B. insulare by the different proportions of OOL, POL and pronotum and from B. ribesi in the closer union of flagellar segments 7 and 8. Furthermore the female of B. asphodelinae can be separated from that of B. abscedus and B. insulare by the entirely white setation of the fore wing (entirely dark in B. abscedus and bicolored in B. insulare ). The female gaster of B. asphodelinae is 1.2–1.4× as long as the head and mesosoma together, with the ovipositor sheaths hardly upturned. Females of B. abscedus , B. insulare , and those of B. ribesi reared from A. albus , have the gaster relatively shorter. Females of B. ribesi emerging from A. cerasiferus seeds have the gaster about the same length as that of B. asphodelinae but in B. ribesi the ovipositor sheaths are clearly upturned. Males of B. asphodelinae have a less protruding apicoventral swelling of the scape than males of B. abscedus and B. ribesi .

Distribution ( Fig. 34 ). Bruchophagus asphodelinae was recovered from sites where seeds of Asphodeline lutea were collected in Sicilia and Bulgaria, and it is probable that its distribution follows that of this asphodel, the only presently known host plant.

Biology. Trophic relationships ( Fig. 44 ). Bruchophagus asphodelinae was reared from seeds of Asphodeline lutea in Bulgaria ( Boyadzhiev & Stojanova 2008, referred to as Eurytoma sp. ( rosae group)) and in Sicilia. Its larvae were found solitarily in seeds from which almost the entire internal content had been consumed. It is also a host of Puklina asphodelinae Boyadzhiev (Eulophidae) .

Larval morphology. The larva is described as having bidentate mandibles with the apical tooth sharp and slender and the secondary tooth relatively large and sharp apically, contrasting with the mandibles of Eurytoma genale sp. n. (as ‘ Eurytoma asphodeli’), its presumed parasitoid, which have a broad apical tooth and a very small, short, blunt secondary tooth ( Boyadzhiev & Stojanova 2008)

Figures

FIGURE 15. Bruchophagus asphodelinae Askew & Stojanova sp. n., ♀ ex Asphodeline lutea, Vizzini, Monte Iblei, Sicilia, Italy.

FIGURES 16A–G. Bruchophagus asphodelinae. A–F, ♀. G, ♂. A, head in frontal view. B, same in dorsal view. C, pedicel and flagellum. D, apex of antenna mounted on slide. E, mesosoma in dorsal view. F, fore wing venation. G, antenna. All specimens ex A. lutea, Vizzini, Monte Iblei, Sicilia, Italy.

FIGURE 34. Distribution map of Bruchophagus abscedus, B. asphodelinae and B. gijswijti.

FIGURE 44. Trophic web of Asphodeline lutea. Horizontal scale bars proportional to the numbers of reared specimens examined that are indicated in the bars. Arrows pointing out the direction of the trophic relationships: from phytophagous Bruchophagus spp. to the asphodel and from parasitoids to chalcid hosts.