Aphycus secundus (Mercet)

Hayat, Mohammad, Ahmad, Zubair & Khan, Farmanur Rehman, 2014, Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Zootaxa 3793 (1), pp. 1-59 : 9-10

Aphycus secundus (Mercet)

( Figs 15–17 )

Waterstonia secunda Mercet, 1925: 20 –22, ♀. Spain. Compere & Annecke, 1961: 39, key. Aphycus secundus (Mercet) : Trjapitzin, 1989: 217, key.

Redescription. Female. Length, 1.0 mm (excluding exserted part of ovipositor, 0.12 mm). Head yellow to pale brownish yellow; occiput brown on sides of foramen magnum. Antenna ( Fig. 15 ) with scape yellow, becoming brownish yellow in about distal half; pedicel and funicle brownish yellow; clava yellow. Mesosoma yellow to pale brownish yellow; pronotum anteriorly and anterior margin of mesoscutum dark brown; propodeum brown; mesopleuron brownish yellow. Fore wing ( Fig. 16 ) hyaline except base with a small pale brown patch, a large infuscate patch in about middle third, and a pale subapical infuscate band. Hind wing hyaline. Legs, including coxae, largely white, except as follows: ventral margin of fore femur and ventral margin of fore tibia, brown; fore tarsus yellow; both margins of mid tibia brown; hind tibia in about proximal half or more dark brown. Gaster with TI pale yellow, other tergites dark brown becoming brownish apically; apical third of ovipositor sheaths dark brown.

Head. Occipital margin sharp; head dorsum 1.47× as broad as long; frontovertex width 0.27× head width, and 2.47× as long as broad; ocellar triangle with apical angle acute; posterior ocellus about 1.5× diameter of ocellus to margin of eye; POL, OOL, OCL ratios–2.5:0.75:3; head, in frontal view, as broad as high; malar space straight, converging towards mouth, so that width at mouth margin is 0.37× maximum head width; eye height 2.2× malar space. Antenna ( Fig. 15 ) with scape 6.15× as long as broad; pedicel slightly shorter than F1–F4 combined; F1–F4 small, transverse, and slightly increasing in width distally; F5 larger than and about 1.5× as long as F4; F6 as long as and slightly broader than F5; clava distinctly broader (1.64×) than F6, and about as long as funicle; second suture of clava slightly oblique. Relative measurements (card)—head dorsal width, 31; head dorsal length, 21; frontovertex width, 8.5; head frontal height, 30; eye height, 22; malar space, 10.

Mesosoma. Mesoscutum with fine, polygonal reticulate sculpture, the cells transversely elongate; axilla with slightly raised reticulate sculpture, the cells transversely elongate; scutellum with raised, polygonal reticulate sculpture, the cells small, and elongate on sides; setae on mesoscutum white, on axilla and scutellum pale brown; propodeum distal to spiracle with long, silvery white setae. Fore wing 2.6× as long as broad, otherwise as in Fig. 16 ; hind wing 5× as long as broad. Relative measurements (slide)—mid tibia length, 48.5; mid basitarsus length, 20; mid tibial spur length, 19.

Metasoma shorter than mesosoma (30:39); exserted part of ovipositor sheaths (from card) 0.35× gaster length, but on slide, 0.27× gaster length ( Fig. 17 ). Relative measurements (slide)—TVII length (width), 19 (25); ovipositor length, 54.5; third valvula length, 22.5.

Male. Unknown.

Material examined. KSA: Al-Qassim: Unaizah, 30.v.2013 (35F), Coll. F.R. Khan. (1 ♀, on slide, EH.1696) ( ZDAMU).

Distribution. Spain; Saudi Arabia (Present record).

Comments. The above listed specimen from Saudi Arabia agrees in nearly all the characters with the original description of A. secundus by Mercet (1925), except for the exserted part of ovipositor which was described by Mercet as being one-fifth the length of gaster. In the Saudi specimen, depending on how it is measured, varies from 0.27× (from slide) to 0.35× (from card) of gaster length. The gastral tergites are retracted in the Saudi specimen, whereas from the figure given by Mercet (1925: fig. 8) the tergites appear normal, not retracted; and explains the difference in the relative lengths of the gaster and the exserted part of the ovipositor in the Spanish and the Saudi specimens.

Figures

FIGURES 15 – 17. Aphycus secundus (Mercet). Female: 15, antenna, minus scape; 16, fore wing; 17, metasoma.