Synopeas calecai Buhl & Asadi, 2021

Asadi-Farfar, Maryam, Karimpour, Younes, Lotfalizadeh, Hossein & Buhl, Peter Neerup, 2021, Four new species and new records of Platygastrinae (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) from Iran, European Journal of Taxonomy 750, pp. 29-51 : 42-44

Synopeas calecai Buhl & Asadi sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:91FEB88D-4B82-4734-ADF5-C4F1A25816F2

Fig. 4

Diagnosis (female)

A9 1.5 times as long as wide; hyperoccipital carina weak; notauli indicated in posterior two-thirds; female metasoma 1.3 times as long as rest of body, 1.3 times as wide as high, T2 anteromedially swollen, here striate to 0.2 of length.

Etymology

Named after Dr Virgilio Caleca, University of Palermo, Italy.

Material examined

Holotype IRAN • ♀; East Azarbaijan Province, Khajeh ; 38°10′ N, 46°38′ E; 1450 m a.s.l.; 1 Jun. 2015; H. Lotfalizadeh leg., Malaise trap; HMIM.

Description (female)

BODY LENGTH. 1.5 mm.

COLOR. Black; coxae hardly lighter; A1 and legs light brown, A2–A10 and tegulae dark brown.

HEAD. From above 1.8 times as wide as long, hardly 1.1 times as wide as mesosoma, very faintly reticulate-coriaceous, just behind ocellar area with a short, incomplete, weak hyperoccipital carina. OOL:POL:LOL = 2.0:8.0:3.5. OOL very slightly longer than longest diameter of lateral ocellus. Eyes bare. Head in frontal view 1.15 as wide as high. Antenna with A1 0.8 as long as height of head, longer than distance between inner orbits (15:14). Length:width of A1–A10 = 15.0:2.1; 4.7:1.3; 2.0:1.0; 4.0:1.0; 2.0:1.1; 2.2:1.5; 2.9:1.7; 3.0:2.0; 3.0:2.0; 4.8:2.0. Flagellar pubescence negligible.

MESOSOMA. 1.4 times as long as wide, about as high as wide. Sides of pronotum reticulate-coriaceous (in lower half longitudinally so). Mesoscutum with very sparse, scattered setae, very finely and evenly reticulate-coriaceous; notauli faintly indicated in posterior two-thirds; mid lobe slightly prolonged, somewhat bluntly, to base of scutellum, dark and swollen here. Scuto-scutellar grooves wide, each with six strong, pale setae in anterior half. Mesopleuron smooth, with two strong longitudinal furrows and some weaker ones just below tegula. Scutellum smooth and bare on large medial area, finely coriaceous on anterior slope, along sides with dense white setae, posteriorly obliquely angled in lateral view, bluntly triangular in dorsal view. Metapleuron in anterior half smooth and bare, in posterior half with dense, white adpressed pilosity. Propodeal carinae low, dark, well separated, slightly diverging; area between them only slightly longer than its posterior width.

WINGS. Much damaged in a unique specimen, but fore wing seems to be of average size (reaching at least base of T6), with whitish tint and without visible microtrichia or marginal cilia.

METASOMA. About 1.3 times as long as rest of body, 2.3 times as long as wide, 1.3 times as wide as high, very slightly wider than mesosoma. Length:width of T1–T6 = 4.0:9.0; 34.0:22.0; 3.0:20.5; 2.5:18.0; 3.0:15.0; 7.0:11.0. T1 with numerous fine longitudinal carinae, only laterally with pubescence. T2 anteromedially convex, here longitudinally striate to 0.2 of length, at each side with a longitudinal fovea of similar length, pubescent in basal half. T3–T5 each with a transverse stripe of weak reticulation and about ten inconspicuous setae. T6 with faint reticulation all over, with very few scattered setae.

Remarks

Similar to the hitherto differentiated species S. latvianum Buhl, 2009 in shape of the anterior part of T2, but S. latvianum has preapical antennal segments transverse (vs distinctly longer than wide in S. calecai sp. nov.), and lacks hyperoccipital carina and notauli.

Figures

Fig. 4. Synopeas calecai Buhl &Asadi sp. nov., holotype, ♀ (HMIM). A. Habitus in lateral view.B. Head and pronotum in dorsal view. C. Antenna. D. Mesonotum in dorsal view. E. Metasoma in dorsal view. Scale bars: A =200 µm; B–E = 100 µm.