Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, 2015

Zhang, Ruo-Nan, Achterberg, Cornelis Van, Tian, Xiao-Xia, He, Cheng-Yi & Tan, Jiang-Li, 2020, Sexual variation in two species of Helorus Latreille (Hymenoptera, Heloridae) from NW China, with description of female of Helorus caii He & Xu, Zootaxa 4821 (3), pp. 570-584 : 573-577

Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, 2015

Figures 1–24

Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, 2015: 733 , 744–746, 983, 984.

Material. 2 ♀ ( NWUX), “NW. China: Shaanxi, Hetaoba, Changqing [ Nature ] Res [erve], c. 1417 m, y[ellow Malaise] trap, 27.ix.–8.xi.2016, 33.65°N 107.57°E, Lin-Peng Zhao, NWUX ” ; 2 ♀ ( NWUX, RMNH), “NW China: Shaanxi , Wowadian, Changqing N. R., yellow Malaise trap, 2237 m, 2.ix.–2.xi.2017, 33.70°N 107.62°E, Lin-Peng Zhao, NWUX ” ; 1 ♀ ( RMNH), “NW China: Shaanxi, Daping post, Yangxian, Changqing N. R., b[lack] Mal [aise] trap, 2029 m, 2.ix.–2.xi.2017, 33.68°N 107.60°E, Lin-Peng Zhao, NWUX ” ; 1 ♀ + 3 ♂ ( NWUX, RMNH), “NW. China: Shaanxi, Pingheliang, Ningshaan , 33.47°N 108.50°E, 17.viii–1.x.2016, 2188 m, b[lack] Mal[aise] trap, J-L Tan & Q-Q Tan, NWUX ” ; 1 ♂ ( NWUX), id., but 22.x.2017, 2105 m ; 1 ♀ ( NWUX), id. but swept, 17.viii.2016, J-L Tan ; 5 ♂ + 1 ♀ ( NWUX), “NW China: Shaanxi, Qinling Mts, Baolongyu , c. 1000 m, 26.viii.–2.xi.2018, 34°03’N 108°09’E, Q-Q Tan & R-N Zhang ” ; 1 ♂ ( NWUX), “NW. China: Shaanxi, Dapingshaosuo, Changqing Nat [ure] Res [erve], Yangxian , Hanzhong , 33.69°N 107.51°E, 27.vii.–2.ix.2017, 2029 m, y[ellow] Mal[aise] trap, Lin-Peng Zhao, NWUX ” ; 1 ♀ ( NWUX), “NW China: Shaanxi, along the road of Taibai Daguanzi to Huangbaiyuan , c. 1549 m, 26.vi.2015, 34.06°N 107.32°E, Jiangli Tan & Qingqing Tan, NWUX ” ; 1 ♂ ( NWUX), “NW China: Shaanxi, Xunyangba, Ningshaan , 1481 m, 17.viii.–3.x.2016, 33.54°N 108.55°E, y[ellow]/g[reen] Mal[aise] trap, Jiangli Tan, NWUX ” ; 1 ♂ ( NWUX), “NW China: Shaanxi, Liangfengya, Foping , 1729 m, 19.viii.–13.xi.2016, 33.00°N 107.90°E, y[ellow] Mal[aise] trap, J-L & Q-Q Tan, NWUX ” ; 1 ♀ ( NWUX), “NW China: Shaanxi, from Huangguan to Xunyangba, Ningshaan , 1236 m, 1.vii.–17.viii.2016, 33.54°N 105.36°E, black Mal[aise] trap, J-L Tan & Q-Q Tan, NWUX ” ; 1 ♀ ( NWUX), “NW China: Shaanxi, Luonan, Shangluo , yellow Malaise trap, garden, 1006 m, xii.2017 – 17.vi.2018, 34.02°N 110.10°E, R-N Zhang & Q-Q Tan, NWUX ” ; 1 ♀ ( NWUX), “NW China: Ningxia, Liupan Mt., Jingyuan Erlonghe For [est] Farm , c. 1800 m, 2.vii.2015, 35°23'24”N 106°20'41.43”E, Jiang-li Tan, NWUX ” .

Redescription. Female from Hetaoba, length of body 4.1 mm, and of fore wing 3.1 mm.

Head. Antenna as long as fore wing; first flagellomere 1.2 × as long as second one, first, second and penultimate flagellomeres 7.7, 6.4 and 3.2 × as long as wide ( Fig. 2 ); OOL:OD:POL = 19:8:19; length of eye in dorsal view 1.2 × temple ( Fig. 9 ); temple, face and vertex smooth, shiny and setose ( Figs 9, 10 ).

Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.5 × as long as high ( Fig. 4 ); pronotal side largely smooth, but posteriorly and medially crenulate and with some rugae ( Fig. 3 ); mesopleuron largely smooth, but medially moderately punctate; median part of mesopleuron glabrous; mesoscutum smooth and with distinct notauli; scutellum smooth, weakly convex and nearly semicircular; scutellar sulcus wide, deep and coarsely crenulate; metapleuron reticulate-rugose; propodeum coarsely reticulate-rugose and with a medio-longitudinal carina.

Wings. Fore wing: pterostigma triangular and 2.4 × longer than its maximum width ( Fig. 11 ); vein cu-a distinctly antefurcal; vein r of fore wing 0.6 × width of pterostigma and slender; vein 1-R1 0.9 × as long as pterostigma; basal cells sparsely setose, except near costal cell.

Legs. Length of femur, tibia and basitarsus of hind leg 4.6, 5.9 and 7.0 × their width, respectively ( Fig. 12 ); hind basitarsus 1.9 × as long as second tarsus.

Metasoma. First metasomal tergite in dorsal view 4.1 × as long as its maximum width and in lateral view 3.7 × as long as wide ( Figs 5, 6 ), and with nearly longitudinal rugae; remainder of metasoma smooth and have many setae ( Fig. 7 ); hypopygium slight shiny and setose.

Colour. Black; scape and pedicel largely dark brown, flagellum pale yellowish but yellowish brown apically; mandible ivory except brownish teeth; palpi, and tegulae yellowish; base of hind tibia pale yellowish; apical third of hind coxa, basal half of hind femur and narrowly its apex, yellowish brown; hind trochanter trochantellus and tarsus yellowish; remainder of hind leg more or less dark brown; veins brown; basal 0.6 of pterostigma dark brown, remainder of pterostigma largely yellow and paler than vein 1-R1 ( Fig. 11 ).

Variation. First flagellomere 3.6–7.7 × as long as wide; vein 1- R1 of fore wing 1.0-1.2 × length of pterostigma; pterostigma 2.4–3.6 × longer than its maximum width; vein cu-a of fore wing slightly antefurcal or interstitial, but rather frequently distinctly antefurcal ( Fig. 11 ), but usually less than depicted in Fig. 6 in He & Xu (2015); first discal cell of fore wing 2.0–2.7 × longer than high; first metasomal tergite in dorsal view 4.1–4.5 × as long as its maximum width and in lateral view 3.7–4.3 × as long as wide; length of fore wing 4.3–5.5 mm. The types of H. antefurcalis have the hind femur largely or entirely black apically, but especially in females (the depicted type specimens in the original description is a male) the apex is more or less yellow. The fore leg of females is always yellow in the series from Shaanxi (except one female from Luonan with dark brown fore and middle coxae), but in the type series the femur and tibia are more or less darkened. In general, the males of this species have darker legs and pterostigma than the females, but the female from Luonan has the pterostigma entirely dark brown .

Male. Pterostigma entirely black or dark brown; fore and middle femora largely and apex of hind femur dark brown; first metasomal tergite less slender; vein 1-R1 of fore wing 0.9–1.2 × length of pterostigma; length of fore wing 3.8–5.0 mm.

Biology. Unknown.

Distribution. China (Ningxia, Shaanxi, Sichuan). New for Shaanxi.

Discussion. After examination of the series from Shaanxi it is obvious that the position of the vein cu-a of the fore wing (distinctly antefurcal or interstitial) as key character is close to useless (as was noticed by Buffington & Copeland (2016) for the Afrotropical H. elgoni ). The position of vein cu-a of the fore wing is in both H. elgoni and H. alborzicus highly variable: from far antefurcal to interstitial and in both species specimens are found to have the position very different between both wings ( Buffington & Copeland 2016; personal observation). However, their conclusion that because of this observation H. elgoni is a junior synonym of H. rufipes is not accepted. From their well-illustrated redescription it is obvious that two species are involved: H. elgoni with the pterostigma more than 3 × longer than wide and the posterior margin of pterostigma nearly straight ( Fig. 13 in Buffington & Copeland 2016) and H. ruficornis (pterostigma about twice as wide as long and its posterior margin curved; Figs. 14 , l.c.). Therefore, we re-instate H. elgoni as valid species and include it in the key.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, ♀, China (Shaanxi), habitus, lateral aspect.

FIGURES 2–12. Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, ♀, China (Shaanxi). 2 antenna. 3 mesosoma, lateral aspect. 4 mesosoma, dorsal aspect. 5 first tergite, dorsal aspect. 6 propodeum and first tergite, lateral aspect. 7 metasoma, lateral aspect. 8 scapus and pedicellus. 9 head, dorsal aspect. 10 head, anterior aspect. 11 fore wing. 12 hind leg, lateral aspect.

FIGURE 13. Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, ♂, China (Shaanxi), habitus, lateral aspect.

FIGURES 14–24. Helorus antefurcalis He & Xu, ♂, China (Shaanxi). 14 antenna. 15 head, dorsal aspect. 16 mesosoma, dorsal aspect. 17 propodeum and first tergite, lateral aspect. 18 first tergite, dorsal aspect. 19 metasoma, lateral aspect. 20 metasoma, dorsal aspect. 21 head, anterior aspect. 22 mesosoma, lateral aspect. 23 wings. 24 hind leg, lateral aspect.