Metaphycus yaanensis, Wang, Ying, Li, Cheng-De & Zhang, Yan-Zhou, 2014

Wang, Ying, Li, Cheng-De & Zhang, Yan-Zhou, 2014, A taxonomic study of Chinese species of the insidiosus group of Metaphycus (Hymenoptera, Encyrtidae), ZooKeys 378, pp. 49-81 : 61-62

Metaphycus yaanensis sp. n. Figs 57-63

Holotype.

♀, China, Sichuan, Ya’an (Tianquan, Erlang Mt.), 2006. V., Coll. W. Li (IZCAS).

Paratypes.

6 ♀♀, 3 ♂♂, the same as holotype (IZCAS).

Female.

Body length, including ovipositor, 1.0-1.2 mm. Yellow in ocellar area, pale orange between occipital margin and posterior ocelli, otherwise pale yellow; lower half of gena with oblique brown stripe, stripe close to scrobe interrupted by a yellow line; upper half yellow; medially yellow below torulus, mouth margin dark brown; rest of head, except occiput, white; antenna (Fig. 57) with radicle dark brown; both faces of scape, dorsal margin, ventral margin with yellow, both sides with broad black strip; pedicel pale yellow (whitish) in apical half, dark brown in basal half; F1-F3 dark brown, F4 very pale brown, F5 venter sometimes with very pale brown strip, F6 white, clava dark brown, becoming slightly paler towards apex, apex very pale brown; occiput brown; neck of pronotum black, posterior margin white, lateral spots relatively large and distinct; dorsum of thorax yellow-brown; sides and posterior margin of mesoscutum and axillae conspicuously bordered dark brown; setae translucent, silvery in most lights; tegula white; metanotum dark brown; mesopleuron very pale yellow, margin of mesopleuron with conspicuously bordered dark brown; prosternum and mesosternum pale brown; legs (Figs 60-62) mainly pale yellow to pale orange; tibiae proximally brown; fore femur yellow, fore tibia with single, broad, interrupted, median dark brown ring; mid tibia and hind tibia with two interrupted conspicuous dark brown rings at 0.2 × and 0.7 ×, extreme apex marked with dark brown; tarsi dusky pale yellow; fore wing (Fig. 59) hyaline, linea calva interrupted; venation pale yellow-brown; hind wing hyaline; propodeum medially brown, blackish, laterally brown-yellow; gaster mainly pale brown, but slightly darker brown dorsally from cercal plates to near apex, gonostylus yellowish, 2nd valvifer and outer plate of ovipositor with brown out margin.

Head about 3 × as wide as frontovertex, head with polygonally reticulate sculpture, mesh size slightly less than size of one eye facet; frontovertex about one-third head width; ocelli forming an acute angle of about 30°; eye not quite reaching occipital margin, separated by one or two diameters of a facet; frontovertex parallel; scrobes shallow and U-shaped; antenna with scape 3.2 –3.5× as long as broad; funicle with F1-F4 smallest, closely adpressed, F5 a little larger than F4 but transverse, F6 largest; linear sensilla only on F6; clava 3-segmented, its apex more or less rounded but with a short slightly oblique truncation; mandible relatively broad with three subequal, apical teeth; palpal formula 3-3 (Fig. 58), notaular lines reaching about 0.4 × across mesoscutum; fore wing venation and setation as in Fig. 59; cercal plate about in the 1/2 of gaster; ovipositor (Fig. 63) slightly exserted, about 5 × as long as gonostylus.

Relative measurements: HW 15, FV 5, FVL 9, POL 2, AOL 3, OOL 1, OCL 1.5, POD 1, AOD 1, EL 10, EW 7, MS 4.5, SL 7, SW 2, FWL 40, FWW 18, HWL 25, HWW 5, OL 10, GL 4, MT 12.

Male.

Length about 1.2 mm. Virtually identical to female except for genitalia and solid clava. Frontovertex pale yellow but ocellar area brown.

Host.

Unknown.

Distribution.

China (Sichuan) (Fig. 85).

Etymology.

The new species name is derived from the origin of the holotype.

Diagnosis.

Scape yellow, both surfaces with an broad black mark in the middle (Fig. 57); lower half of gena with an oblique brown stripe which is interrupted by a yellow line outside of scrobe; mid and hind tibiae with two interrupted dark brown rings (Figs 61-62); scape 3.2 –3.5× as long as broad (Fig. 57); ovipositor slightly exserted, about 5 × as long as gonostylus (Fig. 63). Using the key of Guerrieri and Noyes (2000), this species runs to couplet 27 and is similar to Metaphycus lounsburyi (Howard). It can be separated from Metaphycus lounsburyi as follows: scape (Fig. 57) 3.2 –3.5× as long as broad (in lounsburyi, scape about 2.9 × as long as broad); ovipositor about 0.8 × as long as mid tibia (in lounsburyi, ovipositor as long as mid tibia); clava a little longer than funicle (in lounsburyi, clava distinctly shorter than funicle). Metaphycus yaanensis sp. n. is also similar to Metaphycus transversus sp. n. in appearance, but it can be separated from transversus by characters in the key.