Psyttalia nilotica (Schmiedeknecht, 1900)

Gadallah, Neveen S., Edmardash, Yusuf A., Mansour, Amany N. & Imam, Ahmed I., 2023, Parasitoid wasps (Ichneumonoidea) collected from faba bean fields, Kharga Oasis, New Valley, Egypt, with new records and the description of a new species, Zootaxa 5389 (5), pp. 501-544 : 524-525

Psyttalia nilotica (Schmiedeknecht, 1900)

Fig. 14

Material examined: 2♀, Kharga Oasis (New Valley) [25°33’41.9”N 30°37’41.9”E], May, 2022, yellow pan trap in V. faba .

Diagnosis. Head, mesosoma, middle area of T 1 longitudinally, legs and ovipositor bright orange; rest of metasoma, antenna and ovipositor sheath are dark brown.

Head posteriorly and upper face smooth and shiny; lower face indistinctly punctate; occipital carina present only laterally; antenna as long as body, with 25 antennomeres, F1 3.5× as long as wide; penultimate flagellomere 2.0× as long as wide; terminal flagellomere with apical spine; mesoscutum, scutellum and mesopleuron smooth and shiny; notauli absent; mesopleuron with short transverse crenulate suture; hind femur 3.3× as long as wide; metasomal T 2 distinctly shorter than T 3; T 2 and following tergites smooth and shiny, each with a posterior row of fine, pale yellowish setae; hypopygium relatively large, triangular; ovipositor distinctly longer than metasoma; ovipositor sheath slender, lined with short setae along whole length; fore wing distinctly longer than body, with elongate, triangular pterostigma; vein SR1 reaching wing apex.

Distribution in the MENA: Egypt, Israel.

Comments: Characters of this species agree well with Tobias et al. ’s key (1986: 114, couplet 497 as Opius (Tolbia) niloticus ). However, it differs from it in having the ovipositor distinctly longer than metasoma (as long as metasoma in Tobias 1986). Host records and plant association are so far unknown for P. nilotica . This is the first record of P. nilotica in association with faba bean plant.

Figures

FIGURE 14. Psyttalia nilotica (Schmiedeknecht, 1900) (♀) (lateral habitus).