Asitus, Erdos, 1955

Lotfalizadeh, Hossein, Karimpour, Younes, Delvare, Gérard & Rasplus, Jean-Yves, 2020, Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) obtained from common reed, Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. (Poaceae) in Iran with new records and descriptions of two new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 710, pp. 1-35 : 4-7

Asitus sp.

Fig. 2

Material examined

IRAN • 1 ♂; West-Azarbaijan Province , Urmia, Hesar-e Türkmän; 37º26′ N, 45º13′ E; 1293 m a.s.l.; Apr. 2017; Y. Karimpour leg.; ex Phragmites australis ; HMIM .

Remarks

Asitus phragmitis ( Ferrière, 1955) is a parasitoid of Pseudococcidae on Phragmites australis in the Caucasus, several European countries, USA and Pakistan ( Ferrière 1955; Guerrieri 1989; Noyes 2020). Our specimen is closely related to A. phragmitis and shares several characters with that species: body

dorsoventrally flattened; head prognathous, head and mesosoma finely reticulate; antennae inserted just above clypeus and widely separated from each other; pronotum divided into two subtriangular parts; notauli absent; scutellum wider than long, about 1.9× as wide as long, anteriorly reaching the base of the tegula. However, it differs from A. phragmitis in several characters ( Table 2 ) and in our opinion very probably represents a new species. Because we only sampled a single male, we will not describe this species and await further samples.

Figures

Fig. 2. Asitus sp. A. Male in lateral view. B. Head and mesosoma in dorsal view. C. Antenna of female.

Tables

Table 2. Features distinguishing male Asitus sp. from A. phragmitis (Ferrière, 1955).

Characters	Asitus sp.	A. phragmitis (from Guerrieri 1989)
POL/ OOL	About 1.3× ( Fig. 2B )	1.5×
Funicle	Filiform, all funicular segments longer than wide ( Fig. 2C )	Moniliform, at least F6 transverse
Clava	Long, about 5 × as long as wide	Short, about 2× as long as wide
Funicle + clava	About 1.2× as long as head width	Slightly shorter than head width, about 0.9 ×
Pedicel	Shorter than F1+F2, about 0.8 × ( Fig. 2C )	As long as F1+F2
Metanotum and propodeum	Reticulate ( Fig. 2B )	Smooth
Fore wing fringe	Shorter on frontal margin than on dorsal margin, about 0.5× ( Fig. 2A )	Same length on frontal and dorsal margins
Marginal vein	Long, 2× as long as wide	Short, about as long as wide