Dolichogenidea ashoka 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 : 525-526

Dolichogenidea ashoka Rousse , sp. nov.

( Fig. 12 a–b)

Diagnosis. Mesopleuron almost polished. Propodeal areola complete, strong and excavate. Fore wing with r shorter than 2Rs. Tergite 1 with a more or less visible mid-longitudinal furrow at apex. Tergum 2 about 3x wider than long, its anterior margin pointing forwards medially. Ovipositor about 2x longer than hind tibia.

Color. Head black but antenna testaceous, clypeus and mandible reddish testaceous and palpi pale yellow. Mesosoma black, ventrally reddish testaceous, posterior margin of mesoscutum reddish testaceous. Fore leg yellowish with coxa sometimes reddish testaceous. Middle leg yellowish with femur and coxa sometimes reddish testaceous. Hind leg brownish testaceous with trochanter, trochantellus and base of tibia yellowish. Terga 1 and sometimes 2 black, their latero-tergites pale yellow, following tergites brownish testaceous. Wings hyaline, venation pale brown.

Description.

FEMALE (5 specimens). B: 2.0; A: 1.9; L: 2.2 (2.2–2.6).

Head. Moderately setose. Clypeus distinctly separated from face, its ventral margin truncate, labrum largely exposed. Clypeus and face moderately punctate. H i: 0.9; EH i: 0.6; C i: 3.1; Fl 1i: 2.5; Fl 2i: 2.5; FL1– 2 i: 1.0; Fl 15i: 1.4; Fl 16i: 2.0; OO i: 2.4; IO i: 2.0.

Mesosoma . Moderately setose. Pronotum polished, upper and lower furrows deeply impressed. Mesopleuron polished with a narrow punctate area along anterior margin. Sternaulus smooth, deeply impressed on posterior half. Metapleuron polished. Mesoscutum densely and regularly punctate. Scuto-scutellar suture wide, crenulate. Scutellum polished with some punctures to moderately punctate. MSC i: 0.8. Propodeum smoothly to coarsely rugose reticulate, costulae sometimes hardly discernable among reticulations. Areola strong, excavated and complete, pentagonal, apically truncate. Fore wing. R1/Pl i: 1.3; r/Pw i: 0.6; r/2Rs i: 0.7. Hind wing. Hind margin of vannal lobe regularly rounded and setose all along, the hairs longer on basal third. Legs. Hind coxa laterally polished, moderately punctate above. Cx/T 1i: 2.0; F i: 4.0.

Metasoma. Tergum 1 with margins sub-parallels, with a more or less visible apico-median longitudinal furrow, apical margin slightly notched. Tergum 2 strongly transverse, rectangular, with anterior margin centrally pointed forwards and posterior margin slightly convex. Terga 1–2 longitudinally puncto-striate. Hypopygium large, midventrally desclerotised. Ovipositor very long, apically decurved, sheath regularly setose all along. T1a i: 1.0; T1b i: 1.1; T1/T 2i: 2.4; T2a i: 0.3; T2b i: 0.4; T2/T 3i: 0.8; OT i: 1.9.

MALE. (1 specimen). B: 1.9; A: 1.8; L: 2.1. Similar to female.

Material examined. HOLOTYPE Ƥ (MNHN EY8798) Verbatim label data: La Réunion, ML 82 320m, Saint-Philippe, Mare Longue, Plantation ONF, piège Malaise au sol site 2, 4/ 10.V.2001, Attié Marc leg.; complete. PARATYPES (MNHN EY8799–8802) 1Ƥ 13 same location, XII.2001, leg. Cirad; 2Ƥ same location, II.2001, leg. Cirad; (CBGP) 2Ƥ same location, II.2001, leg. Cirad.

Etymology. The species name is derived from the word “ Ashoka ” in Devanagari, named after the great Indian emperor Ashok, also known as Ashoka the Great, who ruled almost all the Indian subcontinent from 269 BC to 232 BC. His name "aŠoka" means "painless, without sorrow" in Sanskrit.

Distribution records. Reunion.

Comments. This species exhibits strong similarities with A. longistylus de Saeger, 1944. They differ by minor structural details, but mainly by the characteristic shape of the tergum 2: in A. longistylus , the anterior margin is regularly rounded, without the median point. The three type specimens were collected in the Mare Longue forest. A supplementary female, collected in another humid primary forest, exhibits a very similar habitus though its mesonotum is entirely polished and virtually impunctate. It was therefore not included as a paratype, but before more material is collected we preferred to considered it as an extreme variation of D. ashoka Rousse , sp.nov.

Figures

FIGURE 12. Dolichogenidea spp. a: D. ashoka sp. nov., female, habitus; b: D. ashoka sp. nov., propodeum and tergites 1 – 2; c: D. uru sp. nov., female, habitus; d: D. uru sp. nov., propodeum and tergites 1 – 2.