Campopleginae Förster

Vas, Zoltán, 2021, First record of Cymodusa Holmgren from the Afrotropical region with the description of a new species (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae), Zootaxa 5067 (3), pp. 447-450 : 447-449

Subfamily: Campopleginae Förster

Genus: Cymodusa Holmgren

Type species: Cymodusa leucocera Holmgren , original designation

Cymodusa capensis sp. nov.

Type material. Holotype: female, RSA [= Republic of South Africa], Cape Prov., Wilderness N. [= National] Park, 17 km SE George, 33°59’S, 22°39’E, 14.X.1994, leg. R. Danielsson, loc. 18; specimen card-mounted; holotype depository: Iziko South African Museum ( SAMC, Cape Town) 1.

Diagnosis. The new species can be identified by the following character states in combination: inner eye orbits strongly convergent ventrad, their shortest distance 0.37× as long as their maximum distance; anterior tentorial pit reduced, touching eye; gena strongly narrowed behind eyes; malar space almost 0.2× as long as basal width of mandible; propodeal spiracle small, circular, separated from pleural carina by about its length; propodeum granulate with weak, mostly transverse rugosity on posterior half; propodeal carinae complete, except median section of posterior transverse carina missing and costulae incomplete; area superomedia about as long as wide, apically opened; area petiolaris long and narrow, medially distinctly impressed; fore wing with short-stalked areolet, 2 m-cu distinctly proximal to middle of areolet; nervellus weakly broken, intercepted; posterior margins of sixth and seventh tergites medially strongly excised; ovipositor sheath 0.95× as long as hind tibia; body predominantly black, metasomal tergites partly suffused with brown, tegula yellow; hind coxa and trochanter black, trochantellus yellowish, femur dark brown, tibia brown, basally with a small, inconspicuous pale spot, subbasally and apically little darkened, ventrally orange-brown.

1 Upon publication of this work the holotype is going to be sent back to the Biological Museum of Lund University ( MZLU, Lund) then transferred to SAMC .

Description. Female (Figs 1–3). Body length ca. 7 mm, fore wing length ca. 4.5 mm.

Head: Antenna with 29 flagellomeres; first flagellomere long and slender, ca. 5× as long as its apical width; preapical flagellomeres little longer than wide. Head transverse, matt, granulate, on clypeus with few, weak punctures; hairs dense and short, on lower face and clypeus longer. Ocelli small, ocular-ocellar distance 0.9× as long as ocellus diameter, distance between lateral ocelli 1.2× as long as ocellus diameter. Eyes large, distinctly hairy. Inner eye orbits slightly indented, very strongly convergent ventrad, their shortest distance at lower face 0.37× as long as their maximum distance at frons. Gena in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly, roundly narrowed behind eyes. Occipital carina complete, reaching hypostomal carina distinctly before base of mandible; hypostomal carina little elevated. Frons flat, impressed above toruli, median longitudinal carina barely discernible. Face and clypeus almost flat in profile, clypeus very weakly separated from face, its apical margin convex, sharp; anterior tentorial pit reduced, barely discernible, touching eye. Malar space almost 0.2× as long as basal width of mandible. Mandible moderately short, lower margin with narrow carina from base towards teeth, carina gradually narrowed before teeth; mandibular teeth of equal length.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma matt, granulate with dense, indistinct punctures on mesoscutum, and with short, dense hairs. Pronotum with strong transverse wrinkles, epomia strong. Mesoscutum slightly longer than wide, convex in profile; notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove wide and moderately deep. Scutellum convex in profile, lateral carina not developed. Mesopleuron granulate, speculum smooth, shiny. Epicnemial carina strong, pleural part bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it below its middle height, transversal part (i.e., the part at the level of sternaulus running through the epicnemium to the ventral edge of pronotum) not developed, ventral part (behind fore coxae) elevated. Sternaulus indistinct. Posterior transverse carina of mesosternum complete, elevated. Metanotum 0.5× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron without juxtacoxal carina; submetapleural carina complete, elevated. Pleural carina of propodeum moderately strong; propodeal spiracle small, circular, separated from pleural carina by about its length, connected to pleural carina by a distinct ridge. Propodeum granulate with weak, mostly transverse rugosity on posterior half, convex in profile. Propodeal carinae complete, except median section of posterior transverse carina missing and distal two-third of costulae obsolete. Area basalis elongate rectangular, 2× as long as its basal width, apically closed by the median section of anterior transverse carina. Area superomedia granulate, hexagonal, about as long as wide, apically opened, its lateral sides posterior to costulae very shortly constricted. Area petiolaris confluent with area superomedia, almost entirely granulate, relatively long and narrow, apically only weakly widened, and medially distinctly impressed. Fore wing with shortstalked, rectangular areolet, 3 rs-m present, second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) distinctly proximal to middle of areolet; distal abscissa of Rs weakly, evenly curved towards wind margin; nervulus (cu-a) interstitial, weakly inclivous; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted below its middle by Cu 1a; lower external angle of second discal cell weakly acute. Hind wing with nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a) about vertical, weakly broken, intercepted by discoidella (Cu 1) close to its posterior end; discoidella spectral, proximally connected to nervellus. Coxae granulate. Hind femur ca. 5× as long as high. Inner spur of hind tibia ca. 0.4× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Tarsal claws small, about as long as arolium, without distinct basal pectines.

Metasoma: Metasoma compressed, granulate to shagreened, with dense, short hairs. First tergite slender, ca. 3.3× as long as width of its apical margin, slightly longer than second tergite, without glymma; dorsomedian carinae of first tergite indistinct; postpetiolus moderately bulging. Second tergite elongate, 2× as long as its apical width; thyridium elongate oval, its distance from basal margin of tergite ca. 2× as long as its length, not connected to basal margin of tergite by a groove. Posterior margins of sixth and seventh tergites medially strongly excised. Ovipositor sheath 0.95× as long as hind tibia; ovipositor compressed, relatively strong, straight, dorsal preapical notch deep.

Colour: Antenna, including scapus and pedicellus, dark brown, apices of basal flagellomeres very narrowly paler. Head black, except palpi ivory, mandible yellow, mandibular teeth reddish brown. Mesosoma black, except tegula pale yellow. Metasoma black, posterior margins and lateral parts of tergites suffused with brown. Wings hyaline, wing veins brown, pterostigma blackish to brown. Fore leg: coxa orange to yellowish; trochanter and trochantellus pale yellowish; femur and tibia orange; tarsus orange-brown, apical tarsomeres brown. Middle leg: coxa basally dark brown, apically orange; trochanter and trochantellus pale yellowish; femur dorsally and basally brown, ventrally orange; tibia orangebrown, basally with a pale spot, subbasally and apically somewhat darkened; tarsus brown. Hind leg: coxa black; trochanter black, apically very narrowly yellowish; trochantellus yellowish; femur dark brown; tibia brown, basally with a small, inconspicuous pale spot, subbasally and apically little darkened, ventrally orange-brown; tarsus brown.

Male: Unknown.

Distribution. South Africa. First record of the genus from the Afrotropical region.

Etymology. The specific epithet capensis is the feminine form of the Latin adjective capensis , -is, -e, referring to the South African type locality of the new species.

Remarks on identification. The new species belongs to the “australis” species group recognized by Dbar (1985). Within this species group, Cymodusa capensis sp. nov. is most similar to the Western Palaearctic species Cymodusa ancilla (Seyrig) , which can be easily distinguished from the new species by its both basally and apically opened area superomedia, complete costulae, only slightly impressed area petiolaris, areolet (2 m-cu at its middle), unbroken nervellus, at least partly yellowish pterostigma, lighter femora and tibiae, and smaller size (body length ca. 4 mm).

Cymodusa capensis sp. nov. is the first known Afrotropical species of the genus; it is worthwhile and helpful to mention that in the identification key to the Palaearctic species ( Dbar 1985), the new species keys out with Cymodusa australis (Smits van Burgst) at couplet 38 (37). Cymodusa ancilla was treated as a junior synonym species of Cymodusa australis by Dbar (1985) following Aubert (1969), but later it was recognised again as a distinct, valid species ( Horstmann 1992); the characters which distinguish Cymodusa ancilla from the new species are given above. Cymodusa australis is generally less similar to the new species than Cymodusa ancilla , and can be readily distinguished from the new species by its distinctly wider area petiolaris (cf. Dbar (1985): Figs 4, 5; Choi et al. (2013): Fig. 5B).