Bathyaulax buntikae, Kaartinen & Quicke, 2007

Kaartinen, Riikka & Quicke, Donald L. J., 2007, A revision of the parasitic wasp genus Bathyaulax Szépligeti (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Braconinae) from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Journal of Natural History 41 (1 - 4), pp. 125-212 : 149-150

Bathyaulax buntikae sp. nov.

( Figures 36, 37 )

Material examined

Holotype: Female ( HECO): ‘‘ S Leon’ ’ (5 Sierra Leone?), [no date].

Additional specimens examined

D. R. Congo: 1♀ P.N.G., 12.2.1951, H. De Saeger ( RMCA) .

Description

Female: Length of body 21 mm, of fore wing 18 mm, of ovipositor 18 mm.

Antennae with 122 flagellomeres, terminal flagellomere 2.3 times longer than wide. Height of clypeus:inter-tentorial distance:tentorio-ocular distance51.0:4.6:3.9. Width of face:width of head:height of eye51.1:2.1:1.0. Height of face:width of face51.0:1.7. Sculpture on face medially pustulate to laterally punctulate. Clypeus rugose. Frons depressed, smooth, with medial longitudal groove. POL:transverse diameter of posterior ocellus:shortest distance between posterior ocellus and eye51.0:1.1:3.1. Length of eye in dorsal view:distance of occiput and posterior margin of eye52.1:1.0.

Mesosoma approximately 1.7 times longer than maximally deep.

Fore wing: length of veins r:3-SR:SR151.0:2.0:4.0. Length of veins 2-SR:3-SR:rm51.0:1.9:1.1. Length of veins m-cu:2-M51.0:2.7. Length of veins 1-CU1:2- CU151.0:4.0. Shape of vein 1-SR+M straight, but curved near vein 1-M. Swelling in vein 3-CU1 1.2 times thicker than the other part of the vein.

Legs: Length of fore femur:tibia:tarsus52.1:2.1:1.0. Fore basitarsus 5.1 times longer than deep. Length of hind femur:tibia:tarsus51.8:2.9:1.0. Hind basitarsus 6.8 times longer than deep.

First metasomal tergite 1.7 times longer than wide; raised median area smooth, with short strigation on posterior margin. Second tergite 1.1 times wider than long; medial area raised and smooth, with some weak ridges postero-laterally around it. Third tergite 1.5 times wider than long; with strigated transverse furrows on anterior and subposterior margins, median and antero-lateral areas smooth and raised. Two to three ridges between antero-lateral areas. Tergites four and five with strigated transverse furrows on anterior margin, and smooth medial and antero-lateral areas raised. Subposterior furrows on both tergites, strigated in tergite four and smooth in tergite five. Tergites six to eight smooth.

Orange-brown except for the following which are black: antenna, head, apex of mandibles and ovipositor sheets. Orange-brown stripes next to eyes and spots next to toruli on dorsal side of the head. Wings evenly darkened with hyaline zone below pterostigma. About apical half of pterostigma darkened.

Etymology

Named after Dr. Buntika Areekul.

Figures

Figures 35–38. Automontageș images of Bathyaulax species. (35) B. bicolor, frons. (36)–(37) B. buntikae, wing and metasomal tergites 2–3. (38) B. bifoυeae, metasomal tergites 2–3.