Mimodoryctes arabicus Edmardash, Gadallah & Soliman, 2020

Edmardash, Yusuf A., El-Ghiet, Usama M. Abu, Soliman, Ahmed M., Al-Fifi, Zarrag I. A. & Gadallah, Neveen S., 2020, First contribution to the doryctine fauna (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Doryctinae) of Farasan Archipelago, Saudi Arabia, with new records and the description of a new species, ZooKeys 977, pp. 41-74 : 41

Mimodoryctes arabicus Edmardash, Gadallah & Soliman sp. nov. Figures 12A-E , 13A-D , 14A-E

Type material.

Holotype: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ♀, Jazan, Farasan Islands, Al-Sajid; 16°51'25.46"N, 41°55'58.78"E; 10 Nov. 2017; Abu El-Ghiet & El-Sheikh leg.; LT [KSMA].

Description of holotype (female)

: Body length: 4.0 mm; ovipositor length: 1.0mm; fore wing length: 2.5 mm.

Head (Fig. 12C-E ): 1.3 × as wide as its median length, densely transversely striated in dorsal view; face coarsely rugose; frons not concave, without median carina, just a smooth slim area medially extending from between behind antennal bases, reaching clypeus; gena finely, obliquely striated; vertex and face sparsely setose. Temple roundly constricted behind eye, 0.5 × as long as eye height. Clypeus coarsely rugose. Ocelli small; ocellar triangle with base 1.5 × as long as its sides; POL 1.6 × OD, 0.8 × OOL. Eyes 2.1 × as high as its width, with sparse short setae. Malar space 0.5 × eye height, 0.6 × basal width of mandible. Face width 0.9 × eye height; hypostomal depression small, rounded, its width 0.9 × distance of depression from eye edge. Head gently narrowly rounded behind eye when seen from frontal view. Antenna slender, broken (with 11 flagellomeres after being broken); scape short, 1.9 × as long as its apical width; F1 slightly curved, 6.0 × as long as its apical width, 1.1 × as long as F2.

Mesosoma (Fig. 13A, B ): 2.4 × as long as its height. Mesoscutum not elevated above pronotum in lateral view. Pronotum with weak transverse carinae; mesoscutum flattened, coarsely rugose, with irregularly scattered fine setae, with a nearly smooth postero-medial area. Notauli indistinct. Mesoscutellum slightly convex to nearly flattened, ca. as long as its basal width, finely transversely puncticulate. Propodeum not areolate, with an incomplete median sulcus that is branched laterally giving off irregular oblique ridges. Mesopleuron coarsely rugose above, smooth with some fine punctures ventrally; sternaulus deep, nearly straight, extending along the entire ventral margin of mesopleuron.

Wings (Figs 13D , 14A ): Fore wing 4.3 × as long as its maximum width; metacarpus slightly longer than pterostigma (1.17 ×); pterostigma 4.7 × as long as its maximum width; r arising from middle of pterostigma; 2-SR 1.5 × r; 2-SR 0.3 × SR1; m-cu distinctly antefurcal; vein 1cu-a postfurcal; distance between cu-a to 1-M 2.0 × as long as cu-a; vein M+CU distinctly curved away from 1-1A; 1-CU1 0.4 × 2-CU1; r-m not tubular, with wide bulla; 2-SR+M present. Hind wing with three hamuli on R1; vein SC+R 0.7 × as long as vein C+SC+R; vein M+CU slightly longer than vein 1M (1.14 ×); vein m-cu interstitial, directed towards wing base.

Legs (Figs 13C , 14B-D ): Hind coxa 2.4 × as long as its maximum width, with a small rounded tubercle basoventrally, finely alutaceous, with a medio-ventral smooth and shiny area extending subbasally to apex; hind femur 2.6 × as long as its maximum width, finely alutaceous, with some fine long hairs; outer edge of hind tibia with fine, long outstanding setae, ca. as long as tibial maximum width; hind tarsus ca. as long as hind tibia; hind basitarsus 0.7 × as long as second-fifth tarsomeres combined.

Metasoma (Fig. 14E ): slightly longer than head and mesosoma combined (1.1 ×). T1 distinctly gradually widened from base to apex, without spiracular protuberance, without basal carina; apical width of T1 3.0 × its basal width, 1.2 × as wide as its median length. T2 1.2 × as wide as its middle length, with very weak median, slightly wavy, sulcus, 3.1 × as long as T3. T1 and T2 (except posterior half of T2) densely granulose; posterior half of T2 and rest of tergites are smooth and shiny. Ovipositor distinctly shorter than metasoma, Ovipositor sheath 0.5 × metasomal length, 1.7 × T1 length.

Color (Figs 12A-C, E ): Body dark reddish brown, with head and antennal flagellomeres lighter in color; palpi reddish brown. Legs dark reddish brown, except for pale yellow to ivory bases of tibiae and tarsi (except dark brown telotarsi). Wings hyaline, with slight infuscation under metacarpus as well as veins linings; veins dark brown with the following veins are pale: M+CU1 (except apically), 1-M, apical two-thirds of 2-CU1, m-cu. In hind wing, only 1r-m and distal half of 1-M are dark brown, rest of veins are pale.

Recognition.

The most important character separating the new species, M. arabicus , from the Algerian species M. proprius Belokobylskij is the presence of vein r-m of fore wing (Fig. 14A ) (absent in M. proprius ). Other characters can be summarized as follows: vertex transversely strigated without dense granulations between the striae (Fig. 12D ) (in M. proprius dense granulations between striae could be seen); malar space relatively short, 0.6 × basal width of mandible (Fig. 13A ) (longer in M. proprius , 0.9 × basal width of mandible); mesosoma 2.4 × as long as high (Fig. 13A ) (twice as long as high in M. proprius ); propodeum with curved striations especially laterally (Fig. 13B ) (densely striated in M. proprius ); metasomal T1 and T2 densely rugulose-striated (Fig. 14E ) (densely striated longitudinally in M. proprius ); T4-6 finely sculptured at base (Fig. 14E ) (in M. proprius the larger part of T3 with fine granulation, T4-6 with very weak granulation at base); body color dark reddish brown, including the legs except for bases of tibiae and all tarsi pale yellowish (Fig. 12A, B ) (in M. proprius , body pale reddish brown, yellow in places, with the legs same as body with all tibiae yellowish at bases and apices); hind wing vein M+CU 1.2 × 1-M (1.4 × in M. proprius ).

Remark.

The absence or presence of vein r-m of the fore wing has been found to be a polymorphic character for four genera: Afrospathius Belokobylskij & Quicke, Leluthia Cameron, Pareucorystes Tobias, and Platydoryctes Barbalho & Pentiado-Dias. However, this character has not yet been recorded in Mimodoryctes Belokobylskij (see Belokobylskij (2001)), and this was later confirmed in Belokobylskij et al. (2004) in their phylogenetic study of the doryctine genera based solely on morphological evidence. However, in the absence of other reliable diagnostic characters, the situation is considered in the present study to be the same as in the above-mentioned four genera.

Figures

Figure 12. Mimodoryctes arabicus Edmardash, Gadallah & Soliman, sp. nov. ♀: A dorsal habitus B lateral habitus C antenna (part) D head, dorsal view E head, frontal view.

Figure 13. Mimodoryctes arabicus Edmardash, Gadallah & Soliman, sp. nov. ♀: A head and mesosoma, lateral view B head (part) and mesosoma, dorsal view C fore leg (fore tibial spines indicated) D fore and hind wings.

Figure 14. Mimodoryctes arabicus Edmardash, Gadallah & Soliman, sp. nov. ♀: A fore wing (part), presence of r-m indicated B hind leg and metasoma (part), lateral view C hind coxa, lateral view (basoventral tubercle indicated) D hind coxae, ventral view (basoventral tubercle indicated) E propodeum and metasoma, dorsal view.