Chrysis peri Rosa & Baiocchi, 2024

Rosa, Paolo, Farhad, Afrouz, Talebi, Ali Asghar, Ameri, Ali, Baiocchi, Daniele, Halada, Marek & Rakhshani, Ehsan, 2024, The Iranian Chrysididae (Hymenoptera), the current state of the art, with an updated checklist and description of eleven new species, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 10 (4), pp. 827-951 : 893-894

Chrysis peri Rosa & Baiocchi , sp. nov. ( Fig. 28A–F)

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Material examined. Holotype ♀; IRAN, Kerman province: env. Kangari , 29°17'52"N, 57°00'03"E, 2490m, 26.v.2015, leg. D. Baiocchi ( MSNM).

Diagnosis. Chrysis peri sp. nov. belongs to the Chrysis succincta species-group. Main diagnostic characters are given by the combination of metasomal apical margin continuous, without teeth, undulations or incisions, and body colour greenish-red, red to rosy. This coloration can be found in other species distributed in the Middle East and Central Asia, such as Chrysis glasunovi Semenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1967 and C. mysta du Buysson, 1900 , but they have metasomal apical margin with four teeth. Several other species in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia have continuous and edentate apical margin; however, Chrysis peri sp. nov. can be separated from: Chrysis israelia Linsenmaier, 1959 by its colour pattern similar to that of the C. leachii group, with head and pronotum blue, the latter with golden anterior margin; C. aurimaculifrons Linsenmaier, 1968 by its colour pattern, with head, metanotum, apical margin of third tergum and propodeum blue to green and with flame red, contrasting brow; C. striatifacialis Linsenmaier, 1968 by head with scapal basin largely micropunctate at sides, and by its colour pattern; finally, C. schousboei Dahlbom, 1854 , often cited for the Middle East yet to be confirmed, has completed dark blue head, propodeum, apical margin after pit row and body ventral, and can also be separated by apical margin medially slightly trisinuate, in particular with a weak median notch.

Description. Holotype ♀ ( Fig. 28A–F). Body length 6.0 mm, anterior wing length 3.0 mm ( Fig. 28A).

Head. Brow with two rows of small (0.2–0.3× MOD) and medium punctures (0.5× MOD), between anterior ocellus and transverse frontal carina and with medium to large punctures (0.5–0.8× MOD) between carina and the upper margin of scapal basin ( Fig. 28C); punctures below frontal carina irregular, contiguous to confluent each other ( Fig. 28B); puncture on vertex and temples spaced, polished interspaces with small to medium punctures; punctation denser on ocelli area; posterior ocelli with lateral fovea, sinuous and as long as ocellus length; scapal basin typically deep and polished medially, densely and finely punctate laterally, each puncture bearing white seta; malar space finely and densely punctate; transverse frontal carina irregularly M-shaped, weak but clearly visible as a swollen, black line between punctures; genal carina sharp, fully developed from occiput to mandibular insertion; subantennal space short, 0.5 MOD; apex of clypeus straight, arcuate upwards with narrow dark brown rim; clypeus medially polished; punctures small and dense laterally, bearing a white seta. Distance between anterior ocellus and upper margin of frontal carina 1.3× MOD; distance between anterior ocellus and upper margin of scapal basin = 2.6× MOD. OOL 1.6× MOD; POL 2.0× MOD; MS 0.8× MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.5:0.8:0.8.

Mesosoma . Medial pronotal furrow deep, reaching ¾ of pronotal length; pronotum with small to large punctures (0.2–07× MOD), with deep punctures becoming shallow towards basal margin; with narrow polished interspaces; apical margin with row of small punctures; punctures on median area of mesoscutum spaced, large (up to 0.8× MOD) and shallow basally, with scattered small punctures, at most 0.3× MOD on polished interspaces ( Fig. 28C); punctation on lateral areas of mesoscutum with denser and deeper punctures, anyway becoming shallower basally; notauli formed by deep, metallic, small sub-square to round foveae; parapsidal signum deep and distinct; punctation on scutellum with large, shallow and spaced punctures anteromedially, denser and deeper along margins; scutellar-metanotal suture deep, formed by deep and elongate foveae; metanotum with dense and deep large punctures medially, with dense and small punctures along margins; posterior propodeal projections divergent; mesopleuron with episternal sulcus formed by large subsquare foveae, confluent each other and as large as other punctures on mesepimeron ( Fig. 28D).

Metasoma. First tergum with even, medium sized punctures, denser on first half and becoming sparser on the second half, laterally; second tergum with slightly larger punctures basally, denser apicomedially, with narrow interspaces between punctures; laterally and on second half of tergum with spaced and smaller punctures, and larger, polished interspaces up 2 puncture diameters; longitudinal median carina weak, in the first half marked by row of dense dots ( Fig. 28E); third tergum with shallow punctures, with small punctures on interspaces; apical margin continuous, without protrusion or sinuosities, with narrow brownish rim; pits of pit row large, shallow, metallic; black spots on second sternum large, covering 2/3 of sternum length; spot margin straight; spots completely fused medially ( Fig. 28F).

Colouration. Body colour greenish-red, red to rosy; head greenish with golden reflections dorsally, face green; metanotum and propodeum greenish with rosy reflections, as legs and lateral side of mesosoma; metasoma red to rosy dorsally and ventrally; scape, pedicel and first flagellum basally metallic green, the rest of flagellum blackish; wings hyaline, with brown veins.

Vestiture. Head dorsally with short, dense greyish to whitish setae as long as 1× MOD; ventrally with long white setae, at least 1.5× MOD long; mesosoma dorsally with setae as long as 1.5× MOD, long and erects on metasoma laterally with erect and long (1.5–2.0× MOD) whitish setae.

Male. Unknown.

Etymology. The specific epithet peri (noun in apposition) is named after peris ( peri singular), beautiful winged spirits originating in Iranian mythology. They became benevolent spirits under Islamic influence, in contrast to demons, such as jinn and divs. The world parī comes from the Middle Persian parīg, itself from Old Persian parikā. The word may stem from the same root as the Persian word par (wing). Peris can be found in Persian folklore and poetry, in romances and epics and with the spread of Islam through Persia, peri was integrated into Islamic folklore.

Distribution. * Iran ( Kerman).