Mischocyttarus asahi Borges & Silveira, 2019

Borges, Rafael Cabral & Silveira, Orlando Tobias, 2019, Revision of the species-group of Mischocyttarus (Omega) filiformis (de Saussure 1854), with description of three new species (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), Zootaxa 4657 (3), pp. 545-564 : 560-561

Mischocyttarus asahi Borges & Silveira sp. nov.

( Figs 13 , 19 , 25 , 33a)

Diagnosis. Female. Fore wing length 8.5 mm. All tarsi with symmetrical tarsal claws, with apex acute (Fig. 33a); posterior margin of mesopleuron with a dark brown vertical mark, sending an arm to scrobal area ( Fig. 13 ); apex of clypeus narrowly truncate; humeral lobes large, projecting forwards and with extremity reflexed, rather detached from pronotum profile as seen from above ( Fig. 25 ); propodeal median furrow wide and shallow, with anterior extremity round; first metasomal segment elongated and narrow, with a linear parallel sided sector just after spiracles, the latter distinctly prominent; mesoscutum sculpture dense, comb-like, puncture diameter varying continuously between rather narrow limits, interstices rather dull; overall color yellow, with black and brown to testaceous marks.

Description. Female. Length of fore wing 8.5 mm. Head higher than wide ( Fig. 19 ), FHH/IntOW 1.13; clypeus higher than wide H/WCLP 1.16, apical margin distinctly angular, apex narrowly truncate; malar space nearly obsolete; tentorial pit much closer to eye margin than to antennal socket; interantennal area flat, head almost flattened when seen from above; antennal scape moderately elongated L/Wesc 2.8; posterior occeli widely separated, POL more than two diameters; POL/OOL 1.62; occipital carina well developed, distinct in lateral view and ending fairly below the level of ocular sinus; gena narrower than eye at level of ocular sinus; pronotum without lateral fovea; anterior margin of pronotum with lamella raised and reflexed especially on center, with lateral profile as a loop reaching more than 180 degrees; region immediately behind the lamella without secondary margin; humeral angle well developed WCAR/WMS 1.28; pronotal carina high, but distinctly lowered at center, forming large lateral lobes with extremities reflexed, detached from the pronotum general profile ( Fig. 25 ); mesoscutum as long as wide, L/WMS 1.08; fore wing moderately elongated, LDSI/HMP 2.27; all tarsi with symmetrical claws, with apex acute (see Fig. 33a); propodeum with median furrow wide and shallow, with anterior extremity round; propodeal valve high and oblique, distinctly angular below with lamella wider than above; first metasomal segment well elongated and slender ( Fig. 13 ), LSI/HMP 1.37, L/WSI 4.55, with parallel sides from base to just after the spiracles, then diverging and enlarging to form a rather distinct dorsal laterally compressed hump, apex about 2.0 × wider than basal petiole; spiracles distinctly prominent.

Sculpture. Moderately strong and conspicuous. Disk of clypeus with weak medium-sized punctures and nearly indistinguishable micropunctures, area close to ventral margin smooth, with medium-sized shallow punctures (0.04–0.06mm); upper interantennal area, frons and vertex with close dense punctures of generally small diameter, with still smaller punctures surrounding ocelli; mesoscutum sculpture dense, comb-like, puncture diameter varying continuously between rather narrow limits (0.04–0.06mm), interstices rather dull, area close to margins with smaller punctures; humeral region similar to mesoscutum, diameter slightly larger; mesopleuron with fairly regular and dense very fine punctures, and also more scattered larger ones, interstices little shining; metapleuron similar to mesopleuron, but with punctures more sparse; propodeum with punctures larger (up to 0.09mm) and more sparse, central area with punctures larger and more sparse, integument more shining; furrow distinctly striate without a keel.

Vestiture. Eye with very short inconspicuous hairs; head, thorax and mesosoma with conspicuous appressed hairs; longer and stouter hairs on lower portion of clypeus, frons, vertex, pronotum and mesopleuron (whitish ventrally); those on mesoscutum a little shorter; hairs on metapleuron, and propodeum more erect, finer and longer; metasomal sternum 1 distinctly polished, with long fine erect hairs; such long hairs also on base of tergum 1 before spiracles, also with appressed shorter hairs on this entire tergum and on remaining metasomal terga and sterna, more erect hairs on sterna 4–6; legs generally with appressed hairs; femora and tarsi with sparse short stout hairs.

Color. Yellow. Antenna below, ventral margin of clypeus; mandible apical teeth; lamella of pronotal carina; anterior area of fore tibia; distal portion of metasomal tergum 1; discal region of terga 2 to 4 light testaceous brown; antennal flagellum above; fore femur and tarsus; posterior face of mid coxa and mid trochanter, elongated marks on mid femur and tibia, distal articles of mid tarsus; base, inner face and dorsal stripe on hind coxa, hind trochanter (except for distal margin), base and most of hind femur (letting distal yellow areas), hind tibia and hind tarsus, metasomal terga 5 and 6 dark brown to blackish; dorsal mark on antennal scape; subtriangular mark on upper frons and vertex (not touching eyes), joining behind to an occipital band (incompletely connected to eyes); posterior region of the head and mouthparts; transversal band on anterior face of pronotum; humeral marks; most of mesoscutum (letting two submedian yellow stripes); strong dark mark all along posterior margin of mesopleuron, sending a short arm to scrobal furrow and connecting to spot on subalar area and also reaching secondary spiracular entrance; ventral angle of upper metapleural plate; large posterior transversal marks (angular in front) on scutellum (and median line) and metanotum; anterior margin and central stripe (median furrow) on propodeum, black; wings hyaline, with brown veins.

Male. Unknown.

Nest. Unknown.

Etymology. The specific epithet means “rising sun” in Japanese. It is a reference to the bright solar yellow color of this species.

Geographic distribution. BRAZIL: Pará: Serra dos Carajás. (see Figure 34 )

Remarks. This species shares morphological similarities with both M. filiformis (e.g. first metasomal segment elongated and slender) and with M. buyssoni (e.g. large humeral lobes, propodeal median furrow wide). It can be easily separated from the remaining species by the symmetrical tarsal claws, and a dark stripe along the posterior margin of the mesopleuron.

Examined material. BRAZIL: HOLOTYPE ♀ Pará, 16.ix.1985, Serra dos Carajás, Serra Norte , Fofoca (M.F. Torres) ( MPEG) ; PARATYPES 2 ♀ (same locality and data).

Figures

FIGURE 34. Partial truncated map of South America with distributions of species of the M. filiformis group. Embedded frame box shows enlarged area representation with the records of M. filiformis, M. omicron, M. asahi sp. nov., M. kallindusfloren sp. nov. and M. nazgul sp. nov. within the Carajás National Forest (FLONA) in southeastern Pará state.

FIGURES 6–13. General dorsal or lateral body views (females; all from Brazil, except 10 and 11). 6 a-b: holotype of M. filiformis (NHM); 7: same species (Pará, Belém, Utinga; MPEG); 8: holotype of M. omicron (NHM); 9: M. buyssoni (R. de Janeiro; MPEG); 10–11: holotype of M. napoensis (Ecuador; NHM); 12: holotype of M. kallindusfloren sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 13: holotype of M. asahi sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG). all scales = 1.00 mm.

FIGURES 14–20. Head in frontal view (except 17, posterior view) (females; all from Brazil, except 14 and 16) 14: M. filiformis (Bolivia, Beni; NHM); 15 and 17: M. omicron (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 16: holotype of M. napoensis (Ecuador; NHM); 18: holotype of M. kallindusfloren sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 19: holotype of M. asahi sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 20: M. buyssoni (R. de Janeiro; MPEG); all scales = 0.50 mm. Figure 21: colony and nest of M. filiformis (Pará, Belém; campus of MPEG)—nest size 1,5 × 1,2 cm.

FIGURES 22–27. Anterior dorsal view of mesosoma (females, except 27; all from Brazil). 22: M. filiformis (Pará, Belém, Utinga; MPEG); 23: M. buyssoni (R. de Janeiro; MPEG); 24: M. omicron (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 25: holotype of M. asahi sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 26: holotype of M. kallindusfloren sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); 27: holotype of M. nazgul sp. nov. (Pará, Carajás; MPEG); all scales = 0.50 mm.