Anicetus cheras, Noyes, 2023

Noyes, John Stuart, 2023, ENCYRTIDAE OF COSTA RICA (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDOIDEA), 4 Subfamily Encyrtinae: tribes Arrhenophagini, Habrolepidini, Cerapterocerini, Cheiloneurini, Trechnitini, Cercobelini, Polaszekiini, Protyndarichoidini, Gahaniellini and Syrphophagini (part), mainly primary parasitoids and hyperparasitoids of Coccoidea and Psylloidea (Hemiptera), Taxonomic Monographs on Neotropical Hymenoptera (Oxford, England) 2 (11), pp. 1-921 : 515-516

Anicetus cheras sp.nov.

(Figs 1294-1297)

DIAGNOSIS. Female (length about 1.2mm): legs pale orange, hind tarsus with base and apex dark brown; frontovertex, excluding ocellar area, completely smooth and shiny, ocellar area with shallow, polygonally reticulate sculpture; scape (Fig. 1295) 1.4X as long as broad with apex of dorsal margin weakly convex and not shiny; pedicel dorsally flat and shiny, asymmetrical, with an elongate ventral process; funicle clearly longer than first segment of clava (measured dorsally); clava, in profile, very nearly 2X as long as broad and at least as long as pedicel and funicle combined; ovipositor strongly exserted, the exserted part at least as long as mid tibial spur; anterolateral projections of hypopygium (Fig. 1297) hardly more than one-third its overall length. Male: Unknown.

Female (holotype): length, including ovipositor, 1.21mm; excluding ovipositor, 1.04mm (AD) .

Head generally orange; occiput pale orange; vertex between occipital margin and anterior ocellus quite dull with a weak brassy and purple sheen, between anterior ocellus and top of scrobes with a relatively strong blue and purple sheen, between eye and scrobe with coppery purple and blue sheen; temple, gena and scrobal area mainly with a weak brassy sheen; a faint, transverse brown band across face level with torulus; setae on frontovertex, temple and upper gena dark brown, those above transfacial carina, on interantennal prominence and on lower gena translucent, pale brown; antenna (Fig. 1295) with radicle orange, apex and side dark brown; scape orange with ventral margin dark brown and apical part of dorsal margin slightly dusky; pedicel orange with apical part of ventral process brown and dorsal margin dark orange-brown with a weak brassy lustre; funicle mainly similarly coloured to pedicel; clava dark brown, mixed orange-brown towards base ventrally; thorax generally orange with prosternum and mesosternum dark brown; mesoscutum with a very weak brassy and purple sheen; tegula orange-brown with a weak brassy and purple sheen; axilla with a weak brassy and purple sheen; scutellum virtually matt but with some weak coppery and brassy reflections; mesopleuron with a weak brassy, blue and purple sheen; legs, including coxae, pale orange to orange, with apex of hind basitarsus pale brown and apical tarsomere brown; fore wing (Fig. 1294) mostly infuscate but hyaline towards base and at apex, venation orange-brown; hind wing hyaline; propodeum orange with a weak brassy lustre, setae outside spiracle translucent pale brown and inconspicuous; gaster mostly dusky orange with Gt1-Gt3 dorsally dark brown with a mixed purple, coppery and brassy sheen, side of Gt1-Gt5 with a metallic green, blue-green and brassy sheen; gonostylus orange.

Head about 3.8X as wide as frontovertex, about 1.3X as long as deep, with very shallow, fine, reticulate sculpture on vertex between occipital margin and anterior ocellus, frontovertex otherwise completely smooth and shiny and about 2.0X as long as broad; a small, circular, shallow, shiny bottomed depression adjacent to eye margin very slightly behind posterior ocellus; ocelli forming an angle of about 80°; eye hardly overreaching occipital margin and clothed with fairly conspicuous translucent setae that are each about as long as diameter of facet; face below transverse brown band clothed with fairly conspicuous, moderately dense setae; clypeal margin medially very weakly convex; occipital margin carinate; narrowest point between eye and transfacial carina about equal to diameter of facet; interantennal prominence dorsally acute without a weak median ridge; antenna as in Fig. 1295; scape about 1.4X as long broad, subtrapezoidal with proximal part of dorsal margin about 1.4X as long as distal part and with proximal part of ventral margin about 1.7X as long as distal part of dorsal margin which is distally convex, with shallow sculpture and hardly shiny; dorsal part of pedicel flat and relatively shiny; pedicel and all funicle segments subequal in width, dorsal and ventral margins subparallel, linear sensilla present only on F6; clava very slightly less than 2X as long as broad, hardly more than 1.1X as long as pedicel and funicle combined, sutures strongly oblique, sensory area about 3.6X as long as ventral margin, apex strongly obliquely truncate; narrowest point of frontovertex slightly in front of anterior ocellus; malar sulcus virtually absent, but weakly indicated immediately below eye; mandible with two acute teeth and a truncate upper tooth. Relative measurements: HW 72, HH 50, FVL 38, FV 19, POL 7.5, OOL 2, OCL 3.5, AOL 5.5, EL 37, EW 33, MS 29.5, SL 33, SW 23.5.

Thorax with polygonally reticulate to imbricate-reticulate sculpture on pronotum and mesoscutum that is of similar depth to that between posterior ocelli; mesoscutum with scattered pores along midline only; axilla with similar sculpture to that on vertex between occipital margin and posterior ocelli; scutellum with longitudinally elongate, polygonally reticulate sculpture that is slightly coarser and deeper than on axilla; visible part of mesoscutum about 1.8X as broad as long; scutellum about 1.1X as broad as long; mid tibia with a weak external carina for much of its length; hind femur about 3.5X as long as broad; fore wing with venation and setation as in Figs 1294, 1296; costal cell without setae dorsally at apex; apices of postmarginal and stigmal veins connected by a naked, hyaline streak; propodeum medially about 0.17X as long as scutellum, with some shallow, reticulate sculpture medially a weak transverse carina running from anterior margin submedially towards spiracle, 3 setae anterior to and outside spiracle. Relative measurements: FWL 66, FWW 28; HWL 49, HWW 12.

Gaster with hypopygium (Fig. 1297) reaching about 0.8X to apex, anterolateral projections hardly more than one-third its overall length; last tergite about 0.7X as long as mid tibia with apex broadly rounded; ovipositor strongly exserted, the exserted part about 1.2X as long as mid tibial spur or 0.4X length mid tibia. Relative measurements: OL 42, GL 16.5 [MT 27.5].

Variation. Only holotype examined.

Male. Unknown.

DISTRIBUTION. Costa Rica.

HOSTS. Unknown.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.

Type material. Holotype E: COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, San Vito, Las Cruces , Wilson Bot. Gdns, 1300m, 24.ii.2002 (J.S. Noyes) . Holotype in NHMUK .

COMMENTS. Anicetus cheras can be placed in the abyssinicus group as defined by Annecke (1967) (see comments under apatos , p. 518). As with apatos , it can be distinguished from other species placed in the group by the well exserted ovipositor with the gonostylus more than 0.5X as long as the mid tibia (less than 0.4X as long as the mid tibia in other included species). Apart from the characters given in the key, females of the species can be separated from those of apatos using the shape of the hypopygium. In cheras the anterolateral projections of the hypopygium are hardly more than one-third the length of the middle part of the hypopygium whereas in apatos the anterolateral projections are about half the length of the middle part.