Pergaphaga iangauldi Cammack & Wharton, 2010

Wharton, Robert, Cammack, Jonathan & Mullins, Patricia, 2010, A revision of the westwoodiine genus Pergaphaga (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ctenopelmatinae), ZooKeys 37 (37), pp. 35-68 : 60-62

Pergaphaga iangauldi Cammack & Wharton , sp.n.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0D8E1628-A583-4E9C-8BCC-FE1E25F2DB9A

Figs 3, 4, 6, 10, 14–16, 18, 23, 32, 38, 42

Type locality. Australia, Victoria, Murrumbeena, - 37.900S, 145.067E

Type material. Holotype. Female ( MVMA), with labels as follows: “Murrumbeena. V./ Feb. 1948./ Bred ex Perga .” [handwritten] “Collection/ A. N. Burns ” [print- ed] “ENT – 935” [printed] “MUS. VIC./ ENT-1089” [printed] “ HOLOTYPE / Pergaphaga / iangauldi/ Cammack & Wharton” [red, handwritten]

Paratypes: 3 females, 2 males, same data as holotype, one of these with an additional Certonotus identification label ( MVMA) ; 1 female, New South Wales, Windsor, Bred by B. A. Hill, 29.XII.97, Ex. Coll. Nat. Mus. ( MVMA) ; 1 female, ACT, Canberra, The Pinnacle, Hawker , 35°16'S, 149°02'E, 6–23.X.2002, K.P. Bland ( ANIC) .

Other specimen examined (not a paratype): 1 female, Victoria, Bright, H.W. Davey ( QMBA).

Description. Female (Fig. 6, 10). Length of body (exclusive of antenna) 13.5– 16.0mm; of fore wing 13.7–15.0mm; of antenna 16.5–17.0mm.

Head. Clypeus (Fig. 18) 2.6–2.7 times as broad as long; weakly and uniformly convex to nearly flat in profile, very weakly thickened along lateral margin; ventral margin broadly truncate to very weakly concave, very slightly thickened; surface punctate on weakly shagreened background, punctures deep, separated from one another by their diameter; epistomal sulcus weak medially but distinct. Malar space 0.45–0.55 times basal width of mandible, strongly shagreened to finely granular-matt/punctate. Lower gena punctate, with punctures separated by 0.5–1.0 times their diameter, usually weakly shagreened, upper gena more polished and very slightly more sparsely punctate except more densely punctate along occipital carina. Face (Fig. 18) deeply and densely punctate, varying from punctate and weakly shagreened to more densely granular punctate medially, surface distinctly undulating transversely, elevated medially and laterally, distinctly depressed near ventrolateral margin of toruli, convex between anterior tentorial pit and eye (Fig 16). Frons lacking distinctly elevated interantennal flange of P. nigra , with at most a low, very short, weak, median carina (Fig. 23); frons distinctly elevated adjacent eye, the elevated area punctate and somewhat crescent-shaped, frons otherwise flat with post-antennal area adjacent elevated lateral margin appearing weakly concave; surface often polished immediately behind scape, finely matt punctate posteriorly between posterior ocelli and eye, otherwise variously rugulose to rugose to densely granular. Antenna with 42–44 flagellomeres; first flagellomere at most 1.2 times longer than second, 3.6–3.7 times longer than wide, second flagellomere 2.8–3.1 times longer than wide, tenth 2.0–2.2 times longer than wide; tyloid of first flagellomere (Figs 14, 15) large, oval, extending 0.30–0.35 length of first flagellomere.

Mesosoma . Pronotum laterally densely punctate. Mesopleural depression densely punctate to weakly rugulose or strigose punctate anteroventrally, the punctures large, deep, coalescing at least in part anteriorly but usually discrete though nearly adjacent medially; rounded lobe forming anterodorsal margin of mesopleural depression with similarly large, deep punctures, but with punctures often more widely spaced. Scutellum coarsely punctate. Posteromedian plate of metanotum varying from unsculptured to nearly so, polished. Metapleuron densely punctate with additional strigose sculpture in some individuals. Propodeum varying from weakly convex to nearly flat in profile, with very narrow anterior and elongate posterior fields often differentiated; base of propodeum, on either side of median depression, smooth, polished (as in Fig. 34); pleural carina nearly always incomplete: sharply defined anteriorly, touching ventrolateral corner of propodeal spiracle, discontinuous or nearly so between spiracle and weaker posterior fragment; anterior transverse carina often poorly differentiated among narrow band of transverse strigose sculpture, though sometimes distinct as a low ridge; median basal depression margined posteriorly with what may represent the median portion of anterior transverse carina; distinctly arched lateral portion of posterior transverse carina and posterior portion of lateral longitudinal carina forming large, polished, apicolateral area (Figs 32), junction of lateral longitudinal and posterior transverse carinae not tuberculate. Hind basitarsus 12.2–14.7 times longer than wide. Fore wing areolet very small, petiolate above, the stalk equal to or longer than both length and width of areolet (Fig. 38); 2m-cu variable, arising from middle (rarely) to extreme apex (more commonly) of areolet. Hind wing with 1st abscissa of Cu1 0.80–0.85 times length of cu-a; cu-a reclivous.

Metasoma. Petiole with S1 not extending to level of spiracle. Postpetiole and T2–4 polished, almost completely bare and impunctate, with a few scattered punctures and setae, the latter concentrated laterally.

Color (Figs 6, 10, 16, 18, 42). Mostly black; mandible (except dark apical teeth), broad orbital bands on face extending onto anterior part of frons, clypeus (except small, irregular dark spot dorsomedially) and variously sized spot on lower gena bright yellow; scape, pedicel, and basal 19–21 flagellomeres, tegula, legs from trochanter to apex, and most of gaster orange, with fore and mid legs often yellow orange; petiole completely, T2 extensively (holotype) to completely and base of T3 at least partially black in 3 specimens; gaster completely orange and petiole with irregular orange markings posteriorly in 2 specimens.

Male. Essentially as in female except as follows: Antenna with 41–43 flagellomeres, first flagellomere 3.1–3.2 times longer than wide; hind wing with 1st abscissa of Cu1 0.65–0.85 times length of cu-a; anterior transverse carina less evident than in most females; terminal segments of gaster not laterally compressed; face medially and clypeus dorsomedially pale orange instead of black, basal 22–23 flagellomeres orange, coxae, especially on fore leg, partly orange, gaster almost completely black in one specimen, almost completely orange in the other.

Distribution and biology. Known only from Victoria, ACT, and central New South Wales. Reared from an undetermined species of Perga (based on label data).

Diagnosis. This species is most readily recognized by the distinctively bicolored antenna, which is pale basally and dark apically. Pergaphaga xanthops also has bicolored antennae, but the pattern is reversed. Pergaphaga iangauldi lacks the elevated median flange on the frons as found in P. nigra and P. xanthops , and is thus more similar to P. leaski in this regard. In addition to differences in antennal color pattern, P. iangauldi has a more heavily sculptured mesopleuron than P. leaski .

Remarks. The female specimen from Bright is larger than members of the type series, with 46 flagellomeres, the first 30 of which are orange. The fore wing areolet is also distinctly larger (roughly intermediate in size between that of P. nigra and those from the type series of P. iangauldi ), and the metapleuron is distinctly strigose in this specimen. Although considered a member of this species, it is not included as a paratype because of this variation. The following additional variation was noted among members of the type series: in one female, the flagellum is brown basally rather than orange, the epicnemial carina does not extend dorsally to the level of the ventral corner of the pronotum in several specimens, and in the left wing of one of the females, Cu1 is 1.15 times longer than cu-a. The female paratype from Canberra has a slightly different color pattern than the series from Murrumbeena, but unlike the specimen from Bright, sculpture and venation are the same and it is therefore included in the paratype series to emphasize color variation in this species. In the Canberra specimen, all terga of the gaster are black medially, face and clypeus are brownish yellow medially, fore and mid coxae are orange ventrally, and first 32 flagellomeres are orange.

One male specimen lacks a fore wing areolet in both wings. In the left wing, it is easier to see that that the absence of an areolet is due to the fusion of 2rs-m and 3rs-m rather than the loss of one or the other of these. This suggests that within Pergaphaga , at least, there is a trend toward gradual loss of the areolet through reduction in size and fusion of the adjacent cross veins.

The first two labels on the paratype from Windsor are handwritten. The first is difficult to read, with the month, day, and locality legible, but the remainder difficult to decipher and possibly misinterpreted. The second label is completely illegible. This and the specimen from Bright bear Pergaphaga det. labels by I. D. Gauld dated 1984.

The paratype from Canberra is also the voucher specimen for the Pergaphaga sequence reported in Quicke et al. (2009).

This species is named for Ian Gauld for his significant contribution to the understanding of this genus and the Westwoodiini in general.