Orionis orientalis Shimbori & Shaw

Bortoni, Marco Aurélio, Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio, Shaw, Scott Richard, Souza-Gessner, Carolina Da Silva & Penteado-Dias, Angélica Maria, 2016, A review of the genus Orionis Shaw (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Euphorinae) and first records of the genus from South America and the Oriental Region, Zootaxa 4208 (3), pp. 249-260 : 258

Orionis orientalis Shimbori & Shaw sp. nov.

( Figures 30–35 )

Female. Body length mm 4.5 mm; ovipositor length 2.0 mm.

Head. Flagellum with 21 segments; malar space 0.3 × basal width of mandible; minute ocular setae present; face densely setose, especially near eyes and antennal sockets; frons smooth and bare; in dorsal view temples directly tapering behind eyes, 0.6 × longer than eyes.

Mesosoma. Pronotum smooth and highly polished laterally, with few widely spaced carina anteriorly on pronotal groove and weakly rugose along posterior border; mesonotum with median and lateral lobes covered with dense very fine setae, lobes sparsely punctate; notauli complete, deep and narrow, crenulate and meeting in short rugulose area posteriorly; scutellar sulcus rugose, with three carina; mesopleuron mostly setose but bare centrally, mostly polished but subalar sulcus rugulose, sternaulus deep and crenulate; propodeum coarsely rugose; dorsal face of propodeum short, gently curved into posterior face; median depression of propodeum shallow and wide.

Wings. Fore wing: m-cu distad to 2RS; R1 1.2 × length of stigma. Hind wing cu-a:1M:r-m = 6:8:7 (wings image available at www.morphbank.net: specimen AB101, Image #838256).

Metasoma. Smooth. Length of petiole 0.7 × length of mesosoma; petiole about 3.7 × longer than its apical width; apical width of petiole 3 × its narrowest subbasal width; ovipositor 1.6 × longer than petiole.

Color. Dark brown. Antenna brown except scape ventrally yellow. Face, clypeus, mandibles, palpi, tegula, propleuron and most of pronotum laterally light yellow. Pairs of lighter reddish brown markings on vertex between eyes and ocelli, at posterior margin of mesoscutum, laterally, and at antero-dorsal corner of mesopleuron. Metasoma beyond petiole and pronotum dorsally brown. Legs light yellow, gradually darkening toward apex, fore legs slightly lighter than mid, mid lighter than hind; varying from fore and mid coxa, trochanter and trochantellus white, to hind tibia and tarsi light brown. Wings hyaline, veins brown.

Male. Unknown.

Biology. Unknown.

Comments. This is the first species of Orionis to be described from outside the Americas. The holotype was analyzed in a phylogenetic work prior to its description ( Stigenberg et al. 2015), and, despite the disjunct distribution of this species in comparison to others in the same genus, its morphology in addition to molecular phylogeny leave no doubt on the generic identity of this new species. Whether its distribution is a result of natural or human driven dispersal, or where the genus first originated is unclear. However, it is interesting to notice that the sister group of Orionis comprises a couple of species in one of five different lineages of Perilitus in the phylogeny by Stigenberg et al. and both species are from Russia and Korea. Another interesting point is the biological association of O. eximius with Lantana camara , a widespread ornamental flowering plant that originated from Central and South America, has been dispersed by human commerce, and which became a weed in tropical regions outside the New World.

The new species resembles O. masoni in its lighter body color and legs being almost entirely yellow, including the hind coxa. Orionis orientalis differs from O. masoni by having the face, pronotum and propleuron yellow, compared with head and mesosoma entirely brown in O. masoni . Additionally, the pronotum in O. orientalis is mostly smooth and polished, with a sparsely costate pronotal sulcus, whereas in O. masoni the pronotum is mostly punctate-rugose.

Material examined. Holotype, ♀. Top label: “ THAILAND Chian Mai / Doi Inthanon NP summit marsh / 18°35.361’N 98°29.157’E 2500m / Malaise trap 6-13.ix.2006 / Y. Areeluck leg. T246”; bottom label: “ DNA Primary Voucher AB 101 / University of Kentucky Hymenoptera Institute ” ( UKHI).

Distribution. Known only from type locality in Thailand.

Etymology. The new species named after the Oriental region.

Figures

FIGURES 30 – 35. Orionis orientalis Shaw & Shimbori sp. nov. 30, habitus; 31, head, dorsal; 32, face; 33, mesonotum, dorsal; 34, head and mesosoma, lateral; 35, metasoma.