Meria orotaura, G.B & Ba & Boni, 2013

G. B, Ba, N. & Boni, M., 2013, New Myzinin wasps from Turkey (Hymenoptera Tiphiidae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 45 (2), pp. 2155-2163 : 2156

Meria orotaura nov.sp.

M a t e r i a l: Holotypus: Turkey = /TR Ni de Bahceli 1145 m 12.VIII.2011 leg. G,B.Elçin/ NUZM. Paratypes: Turkey = (6) /TR Ni de Bahceli 1145 m 12.VIII.2011 leg. G,B.Elçin/ (5) NUZM (1) MZUF.

D e s c r i p t i o n.

Male (Holotype). Figs: 1-8. Body size: 14 mm

Black, brown, lemon yellow. Yellow. Most of clypeus; half mandible; two lateral along fore border and one subapical stripe on pronotal disk; rounded spot on the disk of the mesepisternum; apical half of mesosternal lobes; most of tegulae; apical third of femurs; half tibiae; tarsi; apical stripe on 2 nd to 6 th terga (2 nd one with waving anterior edge); irregular transversal stripe on median 7 th tergum; regular apical stripe with enlarging sideways anterior edge on 1 st to 6 th sterna. Brown: tip of mandibles, veins and pterostigma, shadows on the articulation of legs, shadows along metameral borders. Wings hyaline. Hair whitish. Punctuation and hair like in Meria tripunctata (ROSSI 1790).

Carina occipitalis complete ventrally. Genal bridge well expressed, its height ¼ oral fossa length; base of hypostoma and genal bridge darkened and opaque, transversally wrinkled and slightly swollen. Stripe of sensilla curvata about 1/3 thickness of the single flagellomerus. Pronotal disk bordered before by a distinct lamellar carina, notched medially. Postscutellar area with a low blunt prominence. Propodeum gently flattened posteriorly permitting to distinguish sub-horizontal from sub-vertical posterior area. Puncture-less and shining fore surface of median femurs. Lateral furrows on 1 st to 5 th terga. Gradulus at the base of 2 nd to 6 th terga, lacking at the base of 7 th tergum.

Female unknown.

E c o l o g y M. orotaura , feeds on Eryngium sp. and Echinops ritro and it appears to be common in the same environment (arid rural land with plants as Secale sp., Aegilops sp.) with Scolia fallax and in very hot weather. M. orotaura moved slowly on the flowers. It was caught at 11:00-13:00 by netting.

D e r i v a t i o n o m i n i s.Fromthegreekname = mountain and Taurus, the name of the southern mountain ridge of Anatolia where Ni de is situated.

V a r i a b i l i t y Paratypes poorly vary both in size and coloration (2 have a little spot on supraantennal lobes, 2 do not have spot on mesepisternum). Digitus varies a bit in having more or less tapering tip.

N o t e. It belongs to the Palaearctic group of males with smooth and hairless fore surface of mid femur. From other species it is well distinct by the lacking of any gradulus at the base of 7 th tergum (unique in the Palaearctic fauna as far as we know), shape of clypeus, gonosquama, and shaggy volsella throughout. From M. ashabadensis RADOSZKOWSKI 1886 , it greatly differs also in the shape of pronotum and tighter stripe of sensilla curvata.