Pleurotroppopsis femorata ( Surekha & Narendran, 1988 )

Cao, Huan-Xi, Dale-Skey, Natalie, Burwell, Chris J. & Zhu, Chao-Dong, 2022, Review of the genus Pleurotroppopsis Girault (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) with interspecific phylogenetic relationships based on morphological characters, Zootaxa 5190 (4), pp. 451-484 : 462-463

Pleurotroppopsis femorata ( Surekha & Narendran, 1988)

( Fig. 5 )

Atullya femorata Surekha & Narendran, 1988: 194–195 . Holotype ♀, DZUC (not examined).

Pleurotroppopsis femorata ( Surekha & Narendran, 1988) , Gumovsky, 2007: 11.

Diagnosis. FEMALE. Antenna dark brown, only slightly paler ventrally at base of scape. Fore wing broadly infuscate below MV, with speculum reduced ( Fig. 5b ). Frontovertex with a median groove below anterior ocellus. Face between frontal carina and toruli hardly depressed; frontal carina straight and reduced, about 1/2 as broad as distance between eyes. Ocelli in a slightly obtuse-angled triangle. MLM with raised reticulation, without a median groove ( Fig. 5a ). Axilla with numerous setae. Scutellum distinctly punctate, punctures coarser than those on MLM, and with numerous setae evenly distributed over entire surface; without lateral and posterior grooves ( Fig. 5a ). Dorsellum with weak depression delimited by longitudinal carinae. Gt 1 piliferous-punctate laterally in dorsal view, with a row of setae near posterior margin ( Fig. 5a ). Metafemur with teeth along ventral margin.

MALE. Differs from female in the following characters. Body less metallic. Fore wing hyaline. Metatibia whitish. Petiole longer. Gaster less punctate ( Figs 5d, 5e ).

Material examined. Type material. Paratypes: 1♀, India: Kerala c. u. campus, coll. Surekha, 30.VIII.1988, 16515, with an identification label “ Atullya femorata sp. N., det. Surekha & Narendran 1988 ” ( NHMUK); 1♂, India: Kerala c. u. campus, coll. Surekha, 10.VIII.1988, S1766, with an identification label “ Atullya sp. N., det. Surekha & Narendran 1988 ” and the other identification label “ Parahorismenus , det. Bouček, 1989” ( NHMUK).

Biology. Unknown.

Distribution. India.

Remarks. Pleurotroppopsis femorata is currently only known from the type specimens. This species is uniquely characterized by a piliferous-punctate scutellum without sublateral and posterior grooves, which resembles the structure in Parahorismenus . Despite this, P. femorata fits the definition of Pleurotroppopsis used in this study. In addition, the differences given in the key to distinguish Pleurotroppopsis from Parahorismenus apply to P. femorata , such as presence of a frontal carina, and female Gt 1 with an eye-like patch. Pleurotroppopsis femorata differs from the other Pleurotroppopsis species in many other unique characters ( Table 2 ), suggesting that P. femorata might be an intermediate species between Pleurotroppopsis and closely allied genera such as Parahorismenus ( Fig. 19 ). However, the monophyly of Pleurotroppopsis remains uncertain, and molecular data are needed to infer relationships more accurately between P. femorata and the other Pleurotroppopsis species, and even Parahorismenus species.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Pleurotroppopsis femorata (Surekha & Narendran). a‒c, paratype female: a, habitus in dorsal view; b, habitus in lateral view; c, labels. d‒f, paratype male: d, habitus in dorsal view; e, habitus in lateral view; f, labels. Scale bar: 0.5 mm. ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, and made available under Creative Commons License 4.0 (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

FIGURE 19. Phylogenetic relationships of Pleurotroppopsis species based on morphological characters. Unambiguous apomorphies are mapped on branches using WinClada, with black circles representing nonhomplasious changes (synapomorphies or autapomorphies), and white circles representing homplasious changes. The mirror cladogram of the strict consensus tree with 89 steps obtained from parsimony analyses in TNT is shown on the right, with numbers above the nodes indicating bootstrap values.