Belonogaster nitida Richards, 1982

(Fig. 7)

Belonogaster nitida Richards, 1982: 40 (key), 60, figs 15-16, ♂ – “ Nigeria: Eastern province, Oguta, east of Onitsha ” (NHMUK).

Material examined. IVORY COAST: Tai NP, IET Station, 5.83333N 7.34194W, 15.II.1997, leg. R. Longair, 1♂ (MSVI) .

Distribution. Ivory Coast *, Nigeria.

Notes. This is the second known specimen of this species (Figs 7A–B). It mostly agrees with the original description (Richards 1982: 60) but differs in some morphological characters: clypeus entirely covered with a combination of long and dense silvery and very few fine black setae (Fig. 7C), F2–F4 with linear tyloids, F5–F8 with linear tyloids expanded at base and apex in two protuberances, F9 with a linear thick tyloid ending in a point, F10 with a blunt ridge on basal half (Fig. 7D), mesosoma without erect black setae, pronotum, mesoscutum and posterior face of propodeum with dense very shallow punctures. Moreover, it shows slightly different yellow markings: mandibles, whole face up to upper margin of ocular sinus, malar space, ventral half of gena and of hypostoma, ventral face of scape and pedicel, F10, paired elongate spots on anterior face of pronotum, ventral half of lateral faces of pronotum, axillae of scutellum, axillae and anterior margin of metanotum, subrectangular spots on lower half of propodeum, proepisternum, irregular markings on mesepisternum and mesosternum, part of dorsal plate of metaepisternum, anterior face of fore and mid coxae, upper face of fore tibia and tarsi, lateroventral face of mid and hind femur and tibia. Given the peculiarity of the species and the concordance of most diagnostic characters, the differences listed above are regarded as intraspecific variation. Genitalia see Fig. 7F.

A remarkable character of this species, not noted by Richards (1982) in the original description, is the strongly flattened fore femur. A flattening of the fore femur is present to varying degrees in most males of Belonogaster, with some species (e.g. B. turbulenta Kohl) in which it is very marked, however in B. nitida the flattening is clearly more pronounced and gives a ribbon-like appearance to the femur, which has two perfectly flat faces that are conspicuously separated on sides (Fig. 7E).