Apanteles muticiculus Liu & Chen

Liu, Zhen, He, Jun-Hua & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2014, The grandiculus- and metacarpalis - group of the genus Apanteles Foerster, 1862 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from China, with descriptions of eight new species, Zootaxa 3765 (5), pp. 435-457 : 439

Apanteles muticiculus Liu & Chen , sp. n.

Figure 2

Description. Female. Body length ca. 4.9 mm, fore wing length ca. 5.4 mm.

Head. Transverse in dorsal view, 1.8× as wide as long and 1.1× as wide as mesoscutum. Temple shiny but distinctly punctate, gradually rounded and constricted. Face transverse, about 0.5× as high as wide, shiny, independently to confluently punctate above clypeus, pubescent, inner margin of eyes parallel. Posterior tangent to the anterior ocellus touching the posterior pair exactly, POL:OD:OOL=11.0:6.0:8.6. Antenna about 0.9× as long as body length, penultimate antennomere over twice as long as wide.

Mesosoma. Length to breadth and height 34.5:22.5:24.2. Disc of mesonotum shiny, finely punctate, somewhat obviously crowding punctures to mark the course of notaulices. Scutellar sulcus arc-shaped, foveate groove. Scutellum shiny with sparse punctation. Propodeum polished, with shallow confluent punctuation anteriorly and strong radiating strigose around orifice. Mesopleuron highly polished, its anterior half with hair punctuation of even size.

Legs. Stout, especially femora. Hind coxae as long as T1–2. Inner spur of hind tibia longer than outer one, nearly 1/2 length of basitarsus while outer spur is less than 2/5. Basitarsus of hind leg as long as tarsal segments 2–4.

Wings. Pterostigma 3.4× as long as its widest part. Vein 1-R1 (metacarp) a little longer than pterostigma, 4× as long as its distance from the apex of the marginal cell. Vein r arising from apex side of pterostigma, longer than width of pterostigma, almost 2.3× as long as vein 2-SR, indistinctly angled at their meeting; vein 2-M a little longer than vein 2-SR. 1st discal cell nearly as wide as high. First submarginal cell of hind wing 1.3× as high as wide. Vannal lobe of hind wing beyond its widest part concave and acuminate distally, its concave edge completely without hair-fringe, vein cu-a strongly incurved and much longer than vein 1-1A, no obvious trace of vein 2-1A.

Metasoma. About 0.9× length of mesosoma. T1 a little narrowed posteriorly, concave at basal two-fifth, shiny, smooth mostly, except sparse shallow punctuation along sides, basal width 1.5× hind width. T3 2.3× as long as T2, T2 deeply curved into T3, tergites after T1 highly polished, and shiny. Ovipositor sheath more than 1.6× as long as hind tibia, thicker and expanded apically. Hypopygium broader, and shorter. Apex of abdomen truncate in lateral view.

Colour. Body black. Palpi, tegulae and spurs pale yellow. Antenna and ovipositor sheath evenly dark brown. Labrum and mandible reddish yellow, their apices darker. Legs reddish yellow, hind coxa black dorsally and brown ventrally. Wing membrane hyaline, apical part of vein C+SC+R, 1-R1 and border of pterostigma brownish, base of vein C+SC+R, r, 2-SR, 2-M, and pterostigma pale yellow, other veins pale.

Male. Unknown.

Host. Unknown.

Material examined. Holotype: ♀, Shanghang, Fujian, 1988. VII.22–34, Ma Yun, No. 885280.

Distribution. China (Fujian) ( Fig. 11 ).

Etymology. The specific name “ muticiculus ” derives from the Latin adjective “muticus” and noun “culus”, referring to the truncate hypopygium.

Remarks. This species is similar to A. grandiculus but can be distinguished from the latter in having ovipositor more than 1.6× as long as hind tibia (the latter 2.1×); scutellar sulcus arc-shaped, foveate groove (the latter more rounded and hardly foveate groove); and first submarginal cell of hind wing distinctly higher than wide (the latter at most as high as wide).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Apanteles muticiculus Liu & Chen, sp. n. a habitus, lateral view b propodeum and T 1 – 3, dorsal view c fore wing d mesosoma, dorsal view e hind wing f head, frontal view g head, dorsal view. Scale line = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 11. Distribution map of grandiculus - group of Apanteles species in China. ★: Apanteles conopiae Watanabe, 1934; •: Apanteles flavicapus Liu & Chen, sp. n.; •: Apanteles grandiculus Wilkinson, 1929; ˔: Apanteles longicaudatus You & Zhou, 1991; ♥: Apanteles muticiculus Liu & Chen, sp. n.; ■: Apanteles parvus Liu & Chen, sp. n.; ˑ: Apanteles spiciculus Chen & Song, 2004.