Fidiobia hofferi Kozlov, 1978

Popovici, Ovidiu Alin, Masner, Lubomir, Lahey, Zachary & Talamas, Elijah, 2022, Revision of the Palearctic species of Fidiobia Ashmead (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea), Journal of Hymenoptera Research 92, pp. 23-144 : 23

10. Fidiobia hofferi Kozlov, 1978

Figs 103-108 , 109-114 , 290-292 , 307

Fidiobia hofferi Kozlov, 1978: 656; Koponen and Huggert 1982: 53; Vlug 1995: 24; Buhl 1999a: 18; Evans and Peña 2005: 62; Popovici and Buhl 2010: 1159; Asadi-Farfar et al. 2020: 128.

Description.

Female. Body length: 0.5-0.6 mm. Colour of body: melanic (Figs 103a , 104a , 105 , 106 ).

Head. Colour of head: light brown. Sculpture of head: alutaceous. Sculpture of occiput: transverse alutaceous. Ocellar prominence: absent. Preocellar depression: absent. Paraocellar depressions: absent. OOL / ocellar diameter: OOL around 2 times ocellar diameter. Orientation of lower half of inner orbits: visibly divergent. Sculpture of frons immediately anterior to ocellus: alutaceous. Sculpture of frons immediately dorsal to toruli: the same as the rest of frons, but smoother. Epitorular carina: present. Distance between toruli: equal to the transverse diameter of torulus. Setation of clypeus: two setae. Malar sulcus: absent. Antenna (Figs 103b , 104b ). Colour of A1: light brown. Colour of clava: almost similar to the rest of the antenna. Number of antennomeres: nine. Shape of A1: more or less cylindrical. Ventral (inner) lamella on A1: present as a trace in the apical part of A1. Length of A3 of female: distinctly shorter than A2. Sensillar formula (A7:A8:A9): 2:2:1.

Mesosoma. Colour of mesosoma: brown. Mesosoma: weakly compressed dorsoventrally. Pronotum in dorsal view: narrow, collarlike. Transverse pronotal sulcus: present as a narrow groove along anterior rim of pronotum. Posteroventral end of transverse pronotal sulcus: not dilated. Lateral pronotal area: sculptured only on the dorsal half. Antero-admedian line: absent. Mesoscutum: weakly convex. Parapsidal lines: absent. Sculpture of internotaular area: absent. Notauli: present, incised. Shape of notauli: dilated posteriorly and acute anteriorly. Outer edge of notauli: almost colliniar with axillular carina. Orientation of inner edge of notauli: converging posteriorly. Length of notauli: at most 0.3 times as long as length of mesoscutellum, measured along midline. Length of notaulus / maximum width of notaulus: 3-4 times as long as wide. Distance between notauli: greater than the broadest part of notaulus. Transscutal articulation: complete. Scuto-scutellar sulcus: absent. Fovea on scuto-scutellar sulcus: NA. Mesoscutellum: weakly convex. Shape of mesoscutellum: subrectangular. Axillular carina: posterior apex of axillular carinae touching the posterior edge of mesoscutellum. Axilloaxillular carina: present. Sculpture of mesoscutellum: absent. Posterior mesoscutellar sulcus: absent. Metascutellum: entirely visible. Metascutellar carina: present. Width of metasomal depression: greater than the length of lateral propodeal carina. Median carina between lateral propodeal carinae: absent. Transverse carina between lateral propodeal carinae: present. Foamy structure on transverse carina between lateral propodeal carinae: present. Foamy structure on metasomal depression: absent. Lateral propodeal carinae: parallel. Foamy structure on lateral propodeal carina: present only on the posterior half of the vertical part. Plica: not visible. Posterior end of plica: NA. Foamy structure on plica: NA. Foamy structure on metapleural carina: present on the entire carina. Foamy structure on ventral metapleural area: present. Setation of dorsal metapleural area: few, sparse setae. Setation of ventral metapleural area: few, sparse setae. Longitudinal striation on dorsal mesopleuron: present. Transepisternal line: absent. Mesopleural carina: present. Metapleural sulcus: present, incomplete. Wings (Figs 107 , 108 ): fully winged, brachypterous. Apex of fore wing: rounded. Colour of fore wing: transparent. Transverse brown band on fore wing: absent. Submarginal vein in fore wing: present. Length of submarginal vein in fore wing: surpassing 1/3 the length of fore wing. Spectral veins on fore wing: absent. Marginal setae of fore wing: faintly indicated. Disc of fore wing: with spinulose microtrichia. Legs. Colour of fore tibia: yellow. Colour of fore tarsus: yellow. Colour of middle femora: yellow. Colour of middle tibiae: yellow. Colour of middle tarsus: yellow. Colour of hind femora: yellow. Colour of hind tibiae: yellow. Colour of hind tarsus: yellow.

Metasoma. Posterior of T2 some or all tergites may be retracted under T2. Shape of T1: trapezoidal. Colour of T1: brown. Lateral setae of T1: 2 pairs. Colour of T2: brown. Shape of T2: longer than wide. Anterior pits of T2: distinctly separated. Sculpture of T2, lateral to anterior pits of T2: absent. Colour of T3-T5: the same as T2.

Male. unknown.

Material examined.

19♀. Czech Republic : 2♀, (paralectotypes), Moravia, Bzenec , 48.967°N, 17.253°E, 1.vii.1958, leg. Lemarie J., (ex. larva ichneumonid) [OPPC0814 (Figs 109-114 ), 0802] .

Romania: 8♀ (brachypterous) and 8♀ (full winged), Iași, Bârnova forest near Slobozia , 47.01139°N, 27.60306°E, 4.vii.2011, leg. Noyes JS. (SS) (OPPC0660, 0659, 0658, 0657, 0662, 0656, 0826, 0661 and OPPC0635, 0636, 0637, 0655, 0633, 0663, 0638, 0634) .

Ukraine: 1♀, Transcarpathia reg., Svydovets , 2-3 km NW of Kvasy, 48.1524°N, 24.2662°E, 5-29.vi.2014, beech forest, leg. Varga O. (TT) (OPPC0823) .

Distribution.

Finland, Sweden, Iran ( Koponen and Huggert 1982; Asadi-Farfar et al. 2020), Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine (Fig. 307 ).

Biology.

The host is unknown, but Lemarie (1958, 1959, 1960, 1961) reported that the specimens from the type series were reared from an ichneumonid parasitoid of Exoteleia dodecella (Linnaeus) ( Lepidoptera : Gelechiidae ). We consider this assumption to have no support. The habitat of this species in Romania is represented by glades with shrubby vegetation.

Diagnosis.

This species can be diagnosed by the visible metascutellum and nearly glabrous metapleuron. It is relatively close to F. vanharteni and F. polita based on its general habitus. Fidiobia hofferi is most likely to be confused with F. polita , a species with which it is sympatric. The main difference is the presence of notauli in F. hofferi and the absence of these structures in F. polita . Another difference between these two species is the OOL:OD ratio (OOL is 2 times as long as OD in F. hofferi and OOL is equal to OD in F. polita ).

Fidiobia hofferi can be separated from F. vanharteni because the fore wings are uniformly hyaline in F. hofferi and dark medially in F. vanharteni . Also, the OOL is equal to about 2 OD in F. hofferi and the OOL is equal to or less than OD in F. vanharteni . Fidiobia hofferi is a polymorphic species and contains brachypterous females among the Romanian material.

Comments.

In specimens from the type series, the median prominence of T1 is smooth and without carinae. In the Romanian material, the median prominence of T1 has two carinae. Also, the specimens from Romania are more gracile than the specimens from the type series. The specimen from Ukraine has the wings more reduced than the brachypterous specimens from Romania, which are about half the length of the notauli, and the medial prominence of T1 with three carinae. The Ukrainian specimen otherwise matches our concept of F. hofferi .

Figures

Figures 103 - 108. Fidiobia hofferi: 103 a fully winged specimen, habitus, dorsal view (OPPC 0635) 103 b antenna in fully winged specimen (♀) (OPPC 0638) 104 a brachypterous specimen, habitus, dorsal view (OPPC 0826) 104 b antenna in brachypterous specimen (♀) 105 specimen with extremely brachiptery (OPPC 0823) 106 brachypterous specimen, lateral view 107 a fully developed wings 107 b WIP in fully developed wings 108 a brachypterous wings (OPPC 0656) 108 b WIP in brachypterous wings ..

Figures 109 - 114. Fidiobia hofferi, paralectotype: 109 habitus, dorsal view 110 antenna (♀) 111 habitus, lateral view 112 head and mesosoma, lateral view 113 data labels 114 a wings 114 b WIP.

Figures 290 - 297. SEM o Fidiobia spp.: 290, 291, 292 F. hofferi 293 F. sashai 294, 295 F. synergorum 296 F. filicornis 297 F. flaviabdominalis.

Figures 307 - 309. Geographical distribution of: 307 F. hofferi (Blue area-data from Asadi-Farfar et al. 2020 Koponen and Huggert 1982 Red area-our data) 308 F. insoonae 309 F. lisenchiae.