Apanteles romei Rousse

Rousse, Pascal & Gupta, Ankita, 2013, Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) of Reunion Island: a catalogue of the local species, including 18 new taxa and a key to species, Zootaxa 3616 (6), pp. 501-547 : 513-514

Apanteles romei Rousse , sp. nov.

( Fig. 4 d–e)

Diagnosis. Wing venation translucent but pterostigma and costal veins pale yellow. Propodeal areola long and open basally. Tergite 2 very short, its anterior margin regularly rounded. Female with flagellomere 15 quadrate. Male with antenna slender, 1.3x as long as body.

Color. Head and mesosoma dark reddish brown with palpi yellowish and antenna, labrum and mandible reddish. Legs yellow with coxae, hind and middle femurs and apex of hind tibia reddish testaceous. Tergum 1 dark reddish brown with laterotergite orange, following tergites reddish. Wings hyaline with most venation translucent but pterostigma and veins of frontal margin pale yellow.

Description.

FEMALE (Holotype). B: 2.3; A: 2.1; L: 2.8.

Head. Moderately setose. Clypeus smooth, barely separated from face dorsally, its ventral margin concave, Tentorial pits deep and elongate. Face densely and finely punctate. H i: 0.8; EH i: 0.8; C i: 3.5; Fl 1i: 2.4; Fl 2i: 2.4; FL1– 2 i: 1.0; Fl 15i: 1.0; Fl 16i: 1.4; OO i: 2.5; IO i: 1.8.

Mesosoma . Moderately setose on punctate areas. Pronotum smooth, upper and lower furrows moderately deep, crenulate. Mesopleuron densely punctate on anterior third, largely polished posteriorly, sternaulus moderately deep, smooth. Metapleuron polished with a deep anterior pit. Mesoscutum short, densely punctate but a smooth area in front of scutellum, punctures somewhat elongate along notauli course. Scuto-scutellar suture deep and wide, crenulate. Scutellum polished. MSC i: 0.6. Propodeum anteriorly rugose, posteriorly polished with weak secondary carinas. Areola hexagonal, longer than wide, extending on almost all propodeal length, apically truncate and basally open, petiolate to base of propodeum by two weak sub-median carinas, costulae moderate. Fore wing. R1/ Pl i: 1.0; r/Pw i: 1.3; r/2Rs i: 1.8. Hind wing. Apical two third of hind margin of vannal lobe bare and concave. Legs. Hind coxa shagreened. Cx/T 1i: 1.1; F i: 4.0.

Metasoma. Tergum 1 moderately curved in profile view, slightly and regularly narrowed toward apex in dorsal view, its lateral margins thickened, surface aciculo-rugose with a strong mid-apical depression. Tergum 2 smooth, very short, transverse, strongly widened apically, its anterior margin regularly rounded. Hypopygium medially desclerotised. Ovipositor large, barely decurved, sheath regularly setose all along and somewhat widened apically. T1a i: 1.9; T1b i: 1.5; T1/T 2i: 7.5; T2a i: 0.2; T2b i: 0.5; T2/T 3i: 0.6; OT i: 1.0.

MALE. (1 specimen). B: 2.0; A: 2.6; L: 2.6. Antenna longer and apically more slender. Coloration darker than female. Fl 1i: 2.5; Fl 2i: 2.5; FL1– 2 i: 1.0; Fl 15i: 2.3; Fl 16i: 2.3.

Material examined. HOLOTYPE Ƥ (MNHN EY8791) Verbatim label data: 11751 La Réunion Saint Denis 15 IV 1992, sur Momordicha charantia ex Diaphania sp. B. Vercambre leg., leg. Cirad; complete. PARATYPE (MNHN EY8792) 13 same label data.

Etymology. Named for Quentin Rome, entomologist at MNHN.

Host records. Diaphania sp. ( Lepidoptera : Pyralidae ) on Momordicha charantia.

Distribution records. Reunion.

Comments. We could not examine the host reported on the label, but the only Diaphania reported in Reunion is Diaphania indica (Saunders) and is associated with Cucurbitaceae (Martiré and Rochat 2008) .

Genus Cotesia Cameron (Mason 1981, Whitfield 1997)

Mesoscutum usually densely punctate, notauli rather indistinct. Fore wing with areolet open. Hind wing with margin of vannal lobe obviously convex, bare to evenly setose. Propodeum rugose, without areola, usually with a more or less complete median transverse carina. Tergum 1 usually quadrate or nearly so, hardly longer than wide, its lateral margins sub-parallel with corners sometimes rounded, never with an apical median depression, at least its apical part coarsely sculptured. Tergum 2 with basal margin wider than apical margite of tergum 1, at least half as long as tergum 3, usually subrectangular, and almost always coarsely sculptured. Tergum 3 subrectangular, smooth to as coarse as tergum 2. Hypopygium usually short, evenly sclerotised, never with longitudinal median pleats. Ovipositor sheath shorter than half length of hind tibia, mostly concealed by hypopygium, with few hairs concentrated near apex.

Mostly gregarious, though sometimes solitary, parasitoids of macrolepidoptera.

Cotesia is a large and widespread genus with more than 2500 described species. Its members are well characterized by the structure of propodeum and first metasomal terga. One new species is described here.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Apanteles spp. a: A. fontinalis de Saeger, female, habitus; b: A. fontinalis, male, habitus; c: A. fontinalis, propodeum and terga 1 – 2; d: A. romei sp. nov., female, habitus; e: A. romei, propodeum and terga 1 – 2; f: A. pashmina sp. nov., female, habitus; g: A. pashmina, terga 1 – 2; h: A. pashmina, mesopleuron.