Afrepsilon pictum gen. et sp. nov., 2024

Selis, Marco & Carpenter, James M., 2024, Revision of the Afrotropical genus Afrepipona Giordani Soika, 1965 and description of Afrepsilon gen. nov. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae), European Journal of Taxonomy 944, pp. 1-80 : 72-76

Afrepsilon pictum gen. et sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0724418C-4A6A-445E-BFB7-3B67AFB1DDBA

Fig. 26

Afrepipona tertius – Gusenleitner 2011: 427–428 (key to females), fig. 13 (partim, nec 426, 428 (key to males), figs 9–12).

Diagnosis

Recognized by the following characters: clypeus densely micropunctate with fine macropunctures ( Fig. 26B ); vertex largely impunctate, with foveae separated by about their diameter and not placed in differentiated area ( Fig. 26C ); pronotum, mesoscutum and scutellum with sparse and not coalescent punctures, interspaces flattened; posterior lobe of tegula apically pointed; dorsal carinae of propodeum present; metasoma covered by sparse brownish pubescence, not hiding surface of tergites; preapical ridge of T2 sharp but not lamellate and short, not covering lamellate apical margin, which is shorter than half ocellar diameter ( Fig. 26D ); apical margin of T3–4 brownish but not translucent; body with more extensive pale yellow markings.

Etymology

The specific epithet refers to the pale yellow markings on black background.

Type material

Holotype

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC • ♀; 50 km SW of Bangui; 04°04′ N, 18°14′ E; elev. 380 m; 29 Apr. 2010; J. Halada leg.; OLML.

Description

Female

MEASUREMENTS. Body length 8.0 mm; fore wing length 6.8 mm.

MORPHOLOGY. Head 1.3 × as wide as long in frontal view. Clypeus 1.3 × as wide as long, apical margin evenly emarginate between apical teeth, 0.25 × as wide as maximum width of clypeus, emargination 0.2 × as deep as wide; apical teeth subtriangular, with slightly pointing out rounded apex, with short longitudinal blunt carinae; clypeus in lateral view very slightly convex. Vertex 1.45 × as long as distance from posterior ocellus to inner eye margin; cephalic foveae barely visible and separated by less than their diameter, not placed in a differentiated area; gena 0.5 × as wide as eye at bottom of ocular sinus; occipital carina complete, fine and sharp on vertex, raised in a sharp ridge on gena, evenly curved in lower third: F1 1.45 × as long as wide and 1.35 × as long as F2, F2–3 subquadrate, F4–9 transverse and becoming progressively shorter. Mesosoma 1.25 × as long as wide. Sides of pronotum convex and converging in dorsal view, weakly sinuate behind humeri; pronotal carina complete, sharp and raised in very short lamella, evenly rounded on humeri; pretegular carina very weak and replaced in ventral half by a very deep furrow, anteriorly margined by a vertical ridge continuing epicnemial carina; lateral faces of pronotum smoothly passing into dorsal face, weakly depressed in lower half. Mesoscutum 0.9 × as long as wide, evenly convex in lateral view. Scutellum very weakly convex; anterior margin crenate with very large pits, median one much larger. Metanotum very weakly convex in lateral view. Tegula almost equaling parategula, outer margin strongly convex in the middle, posterior lobe short and pointed, more or less right-angled; parategula small and straight with rounded apex. Epicnemial carina strong and distinct but dull, reaching pronotal margin above and mesosternum below. Propodeum falling almost vertically behind metanotum in lateral view; posterior face shallowly concave but sharply separated from other faces; lateral faces distinctly depressed with strongly convex posterodorsal margin; dorsal carinae strong in median half and disappearing laterally. T1 semicircular, 0.45 × as long as wide in dorsal view; posterior margin thin with short hyaline lamellar margin. T2 0.8 × as long as wide in dorsal view, apical margin lamellate and hyaline, transition between tergite and lamella marked by a very short lamellar ridge. S2 evenly convex in lateral view.

SCULPTURE AND VESTITURE. Clypeus matte, finely shagreened with very fine dense micropunctures and shallow rounded punctures, latter smaller basally and larger apically with interspaces equal to two puncture diameters at least. Frons with shallow flat-bottomed polygonal cells, touching and separated by irregular interspaces reduced to narrow ridges, cells with shiny bottom and interspaces matte; vertex shiny with barely visible shagreen and largely impunctate in posterior half, gena irregularly microsculpted and very shiny with punctures mostly restricted to anterior margin. Scape matte, densely micropunctate with few very sparse fine punctures. Pronotum, mesoscutum and scutellum with dense deep punctures; interspaces mostly flattened and some reduced to narrow ridges, mostly narrower than puncture diameter on pronotum and mesoscutum, scutellum more sparsely punctate in anterior half; lateral faces of pronotum micropunctate and shiny with some shallow striae. Metanotum with few shallow oblique punctures in median area, almost impunctate laterally. Mesepisternum with large flat-bottomed punctures, very dense along epicnemial carina and becoming sparser posteriorly, posterior third almost entirely impunctate and finely shagreened; epicnemium and mesosternum finely shagreened and shiny, with sparse fine punctures on mesosternum. Dorsal faces of propodeum with very large and coarse punctures, interspaces mostly reduced to very narrow and sharp raised ridges, anterior third with some flattened interspaces; posterior face densely shagreened with barely visible short striae near mid-line, very few shallow punctures along dorsal margin; metaepisternum and lateral faces of propodeum finely shagreened and with some striae posteriorly converging to form large shallow punctures. T1 finely shagreened and micropunctate, silky shiny, with very sparse and barely visible oblique punctures; T2 similar to T1 but punctures and micropunctures deeper and denser, interspaces more shiny; T3–4 shagreened with coarse oblique punctures; T5–6 shagreened and micropunctate, with very sparse fine punctures; S1 matte and irregularly sculpted; S2 similar to T2 but punctures much larger and deeper, forming a dense preapical series; S3–6 similar to respective tergites but with finer sculpture. Head and mesosoma with pale brownish suberect setae; clypeus, lower third of frons, gena and sides of mesosoma with dense pale pubescence; propodeum covered in very short white pubescence, denser on lateral faces and present only on margins of posterior face, leaving a median bare area, corners with longer setae; metasoma with dense short brownish setae with reddish tinge, T2–6 and S2–5 with preapical series of suberect longer setae.

COLORATION. Black; apical half of mandible and last segment of tarsi dark red; following parts pale yellow: large semicircular spots on basal corners of clypeus, small spot in antennocular space, lower half of ocular sinus, inverted heart-shaped spot above interantennal space, lower face of scape, line behind upper eye lobe, laterally abbreviated line on anterior margin of pronotum, narrow posterior margin of pronotum, posterior spot on tegula, parategula, anterior corners of scutellum, anterior half of metanotum, narrow and regular lines at apex of T1–2, apical spot on outer face of fore and mid femora, inner face of fore tibia, basally abbreviated line on outer face of all tibiae, line on basal half of fore basitarsus. Wings subhyaline with slightly infuscate marginal cell.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution

Central African Republic.

Remarks

As already said above, the holotype of this species was originally described as the female of Afrepipona tertia .

Figures

Fig. 26. Afrepsilon pictum gen. et sp. nov., ♀, holotype from near Bangui (OLML). A. Habitus, dorsal view. B. Head, frontal view. C. Head, dorsal view. D. T2–3, dorsal view. Scale bars = 1 mm.