Leiophron crassivena Gupta & van Achterberg, 2022

Gupta, Ankita, Achterberg, Cornelis Van, Pattar, Rohit & Minz, Kriti Arpana, 2022, On the occurrence of a Palaearctic species of the genus Aphaereta Foerster (Braconidae, Alysiinae) and description of a new species of the genus Leiophron Nees (Braconidae, Euphorinae) from central India, Zootaxa 5209 (4), pp. 455-462 : 458-460

Leiophron crassivena Gupta & van Achterberg sp. nov.

Figs 3–5

Type material. Holotype. ♀; India, Chhattisgarh, Mainpat , 22°48′33.146′′ N, 83°17′38.919′′ E, yellow pan trap, 25– 30.iii.2022; leg Kriti A. Minz. code— NBAIR / Brac / Euph / Leio /25322H (NIM) . Paratype, one female and one male, same data as holotype, code— NBAIR /Brac/Euph/Leio/25322P1 and NBAIR /Brac/Euph/Leio/25322P2 (NIM) .

Holotype. Body length 3.2 mm; fore wing length 2.3 mm; exserted part of ovipositor 0.15 mm.

Colour. Body mainly brownish ( Figs 3 & 4 ); antennomeres yellowish but 3–4 apical antennomeres dark brown; legs in general yellowish with comparatively paler fore and mid legs; fore wings prominently infuscated, fore wing with pterostigma dark brown in apical half and remainder pale yellowish; first tergite and majority of the second tergite yellowish brown, following tergites black.

Head. Antenna with 15 antennomeres; F1 3.8 × as long as wide and 1.1 × F2; penultimate antennomere 1.4 × as long as wide; head rather square ( Fig. 5A ), ca. 1.4 × as wide as long in dorsal view, 1.3× as wide as long in frontal view; temple smooth; eye length 1.6 × temple in dorsal view ( Fig. 5B ); POL:OOL: OD = 14.3: 12.4: 4.5; POL 1.1 × OOL; malar suture present, malar space subequal to 0.7 × basal width of mandible; occipital carina ventrally present; face smooth and setose, clypeus smooth and intertentorial line 3.2 × tentorio-ocular line; vertex smooth around ocelli, with shallow punctures near temple and occiput.

Mesosoma. Mesosoma 1.8 × as long as wide in dorsal view, notauli entirely absent, median and lateral lobes of mesoscutum smooth ( Fig. 5C ). Propodeum irregularly reticulate rugose with no median carina. Fore wing 3.3 × as long as wide ( Fig. 5E ); pterostigma 2.8 × as long as wide; 1- R 1 0.35–0.37 × length of pterostigma; 1-M thickened; 1-CU1, 2-CU1 present; r+3-SR+SR1 well developed; 1-SR+M weakly developed; basal cell glabrous and subbasal cell largely so. Hind femur, hind tibia and hind basitarsus 4.9, 8.0, 8.9 × as long as their width, respectively.

Metasoma. Metasoma 2.5 × its width in dorsal view and 2.7 × its height in lateral view; first tergite longitudinally striate ( Fig. 5D ), 3.9 × longer than its apical width; spiracles situated at middle of tergite and ventral one third of T 1 closed in middle; T 2 smooth, 0.4 × length of metasoma, remaining tergites smooth.

Variation. The male paratype ( Fig. 4 ) is very similar to the holotype but differs in having 16 antennomeres.

Etymology. Named after the thickened vein 1-M of the fore wing: “crassus” is Latin for thickened and “vena” is Latin for vein.

Remarks. This species comes close to L. hayati by having the length of the malar space and the basal width of the mandible subequal, the face smooth, the colour pattern similar and the notauli entirely absent ( Shamim et al. 2009). However, it can be differentiated with the following set of characters: length of metasoma 2.6 × its height (4.2 × its height in L. hayati ); hind femur 4.9 × as long as wide (3.0 × as long as wide); T1 3.9 × longer than its apical width (3.3 × longer than its apical width) and T2 0.4 × as long as metasoma (more than 0.5 × as long as metasoma).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Leiophron crassivena Gupta & van Achterberg sp. nov., holotype (female).

FIGURE 4. Leiophron crassivena Gupta & van Achterberg sp. nov., male.

FIGURE 5. Leiophron crassivena Gupta & van Achterberg sp. nov. A—Head in frontal aspect; B—Vertex; C— Mesosoma; D—Metasoma; E—Wings.