Argogorytes pulawskii Girish Kumar & Dubey, 2021

Kumar, P. Girish & Dubey, Anil Kumar, 2021, Discovery of the digger wasp genus Argogorytes Ashmead, 1899 (Hymenoptera Crabronidae: Bembicinae) in India and description of a new species, Zootaxa 4927 (2), pp. 282-288 : 283-285

Argogorytes pulawskii Girish Kumar & Dubey sp. nov.

( Figs 1–12 )

Type material. Holotype ♀, India: Andaman Islands , North Andaman Island , Diglipur, Shyamnagar (13° 14’ 49’’ N & 92° 58’ 25’’ E, altitude 9 m), 12.viii.2019, Coll. A.K. Dubey, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.15451.

Diagnosis. Argogorytes pulawskii sp. nov. differs from all other Argogorytes by the following combination of characters: basal four metasomal terga black with pair of small creamy white spots on Gt 1 subapically, and a pair of narrow elongated creamy white bands on Gt 2 subapically ( Fig. 10 ); metanotum black ( Fig. 5 ); wings hyaline except stigma, marginal cell, parts of costal cell and space outside of costal cell III of forewing infumated ( Figs 8 & 9 ); scutellum medially without narrow, transverse, raised smooth area ( Fig. 5 ); posterior margin of Gt 2 –Gt 3 doubleedged ( Fig. 7 ); pygidium narrow, moderately short, subparallel-sided, with median ridge and lateral grove bearing few setigerous punctures ( Figs 1 & 10 ).

Description. Holotype female. Body length 12 mm; forewing length 8 mm.

Colour. Black, following parts creamy white: two narrow elongated marks on base of clypeus, pronotal collar narrowly, pronotal lobe, pair of small spot on T1 subapically and a pair of very narrow elongated band on T2 subapically. Mandible at middle reddish brown; maxillary and labial palpi and ventral sides of all tarsi pale brown; flagellum ventrally and tegula brownish black. Wing membrane clear hyaline except forewing infumate on marginal cell and its periphery and on costal cell; stigma black; veins dark brown.

Vestiture. Short and silvery, some longer setae present on mandible and clypeus, vestiture on labrum pale brownish; pygidial setae short, erect and silvery.

Head. Head height 0.87 × its maximum width in frontal view ( Fig 2 ); interocular distance at base of clypeus 0.92 × that at anterior ocellus; clypeus 2.05 × as wide as high, apical margin in middle shallowly incurved, surface with scattered large punctures interspersed among small punctures ( Fig. 3 ); lower half of front with small punctures, one diameter or less apart on average, and with inconspicuous median carina; upper half of front with somewhat larger punctures, many of them half diameter apart; POL 1.27 × OOL; vertex punctation similar to that on upper front; gena with rather dense small punctures. Antenna as in Figure 4 , length of antennal segments as follows: scape: pedicel: fu 1: fu 2: fu 3: fu 4: fu 5: fu 6: fu 7: fu 8: fu 9: fu 10 = 18: 5: 14.5: 13: 12: 11.5: 10: 9.5: 9.5: 9.5: 9.5: 14.8.

Mesosoma. Pronotal collar with anterior, transverse, low, erect carina; mesoscutum anterolaterally with contiguous small punctures, elsewhere with large contiguous pits or punctures; scutellum raised, convex, in middle without narrow, transverse, raised smooth area, posteriorly with small circular pubescent pit, elsewhere with contiguous punctures slightly smaller than those on scutum; metanotum similarly punctate, raised in the middle; mesopleuron adjacent to pronotal lobe somewhat coarsely, closely pitted, remainder with conspicuous, close, oblique to transverse ridges with fine, interspersed small and large setiferous punctures; metapleuron smooth with moderately dense, fine, setiferous punctures; propodeal enclosure triangular, with coarse, slightly irregular longitudinal rugae, margined laterally by short oblique rugae, rest of dorsum with longer oblique rugae basally and shorter rugae apically ( Fig. 7 ); posterior propodeal surface with rugulae radiating outward and upward from metasomal insertion; lateral propodeal surface mostly smooth but with somewhat inconspicuous curved posterolateral rugae; plantulae present on tarsal segments I–IV.

Metasoma. Gt 1 – Gt 3 with small punctures mostly 0.5–1.0 × diameter apart, Gt 4 with smaller, evenly spaced punctures, Gt 5 with fine, moderately dense punctures; posterior margin of Gt 2 – Gt 3 double-edged ( Figs 1 & 10 ); pygidium ( Fig. 12 ) narrow, moderately short, sub-parallel sided, with median ridge and lateral grove bearing few setigerous punctures; Gs 1 with conspicuous complete median keel which is curved in basal half and almost triangular in apical half; Gs 2 raised in to median rounded prominence about a third from base.

Etymology. The species is named after Dr Wojciech J. Pulawski, California Academy of Sciences, USA for honouring his tremendous contribution to taxonomy of Crabronidae .

Distribution. India: Andaman Islands.

Figures

FIGURES 1–12. Argogorytes pulawskii sp. nov. Holotype ♀. 1. Habitus, lateral view. 2. Head, frontal view. 3. Lower half of head, frontal view. 4. Antenna. 5. Head and mesosoma, dorsal view. 6. Mesosternum. 7. Propodeum. 8. Forewing. 9. Hindwing. 10. Metasoma, dorsal view. 11. Metasoma, ventral view. 12. Last metasomal tergum.