Pristomerus zulu, Rousse & Noort, 2015

Rousse, Pascal & Noort, Simon van, 2015, Revision of the Afrotropical species of Pristomerus (Ichneumonidae: Cremastinae), with descriptions of 31 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 124, pp. 1-129 : 123-125

Pristomerus zulu sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:4C307073-AE10-4691-9E03-FC26E1B619E9

Fig. 49

Diagnosis

Moderately large to large; head mostly reddish-testaceous with inner orbits and lower head whitish yellow; mesosoma reddish-testaceous; metasoma black; legs testaceous with white markings on anterior margin of fore and mid tibiae, and apex of all femora and trochanters; pterostigma anteriorly white; face and clypeus moderately to densely punctate, remainder of head more finely sculptured; clypeus long, moderately transverse; inner margins of eyes subparallel; malar line short; antenna with 31–32 flagellomeres, penultimate one distinctly shorter than wide; mesosoma densely punctate but pronotum centrally and ventral half of speculum smooth; female femoral tooth strong; ovipositor moderately long, weakly sinuous apically. Male with ocelli enlarged, hind femur and femoral tooth stouter, inner margins of eyes diverging ventrally, and mesoscutum largely coriaceous.

Differential diagnosis

Rather to quite large and with an unusual colour pattern: metasoma black, head and mesosoma reddishtestaceous except orbits and lower head white, and legs largely white-maculated. That colour pattern readily distinguishes this species from almost all other Pristomerus species; P. veloma is somewhat similar in colour, but its orbits are not contrastingly pale and diverge ventrally.

Type material

Holotype

SOUTH AFRICA: ♀, “ SOUTH AFRICA, TVL, D’Nyala Nature Res , Ellisras district, 23.45S 27.49E, 19.xii.1987, M. W. Mansell ” ( SANC).

Paratypes

SOUTH AFRICA: 2 ♀♀, 1 ♂, “Goshen, nr. Cathcart, E. Cape, Mar. 1954, SAM–HYM–P001202” ( SAMC).

Description

Female (3 specimens)

B 8.2–11.1; A 4.1–5.8; F 4.6–6.2; CT 1.6; ML 0.4; POL1.0; OOL 1.1; Fl n-1 0.8; ASM 2.2; OT 1.7; FFT 2.

COLOUR. Head mostly reddish-testaceous with face sometimes fading to black medially, and whitish parts: inner orbits, most of clypeus, mandible but teeth, malar space and palpi; mesosoma reddishtestaceous with scutellum weakly lighter orange and sometimes an infuscate marking on metanotum; metasoma black; legs mostly testaceous with anterior margins of fore and mid tibiae, and apex of all femora and trochanters whitish; ovipositor sheath dark brown; antenna dark brown, sometimes fading to testaceous toward apex; wing hyaline, venation pale brown with anterior half of pterostigma whitish.

HEAD. Face moderately punctate; inner margins of eyes subparallel; clypeus sparsely and shallowly punctate, weakly transverse, long; malar line short; frons nearly smooth; vertex and temple coriaceous;

occipital and hypostomal carina joining at mandible base; antenna short and stout with 31–32 flagellomeres, penultimate flagellomere distinctly shorter than wide.

MESOSOMA. Pronotum mostly shallowly punctate, anteriorly crenulate and medially smoother; mesopleuron and metapleuron densely and deeply punctate, with a striate oblique furrow below speculum, speculum mostly smooth; mesoscutum densely punctate, punctation sometimes sparser on lateral lobe; notaulus moderate and rugose; scutellum densely and shallowly punctate; propodeum densely punctate, punctures somewhat confluent medially into transverse rugosities, area superomedia sometimes smoother centrally; area superomedia elongate. Legs. Femoral tooth strong, hardly to distinctly higher than basally wide.

METASOMA. Apical half of tergite 1 and entire tergite 2 aciculate, following tergites coriaceous; thyridium subcircular; ovipositor moderately long, apically weakly sinuous.

Male (paratype)

B 11.5; A 6.2; F 6.5; POL 0.6; OOL 0.4. Ocelli enlarged; inner margins of eyes distinctly diverging ventrally; mesoscutum weakly sculptured, mostly coriaceous with punctures on anterior half of median lobe and along notaulus; hind femur and femoral tooth stouter; otherwise similar to female.

Distribution

South Africa.

Comments

The three paratypes were previously reported as non-type specimens of P. veloma in Rousse et al. 2013 .

Figures

Fig. 49. Pristomerus zulu sp. nov. Holotype, ♀. A. Habitus, lateral view. B. Head, mesosoma, dorsal view. C. Head, anterior view. D. Propodeum, dorsal view. E. Mesosoma, lateral view. F. Hind tibia, lateral view (inset: data labels).