Anicetus apatos, 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 : 517-518

Anicetus apatos sp.nov.

(Figs 1298-1302; Hab. E 189)

DIAGNOSIS. Female (length about 1.5-1.8mm): 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; antenna (Fig. 1300) with scape 1.7X 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 2.5X 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. 1299) about half its overall length. Male: Unknown.

Female (holotype): length, including ovipositor, 1.50mm; excluding ovipositor, 1.27mm (CPD).

Head generally 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 weak brassy sheen; a transverse brown band across face level with torulus; setae on frontovertex, temple and upper gena dark brown, those across transfacial carina, on interantennal prominence and on lower gena translucent, pale brown; antenna (Fig. 1300) with radicle pale orange-brown, apically dark brown; scape orange with ventral margin dark brown and apical part of dorsal margin slightly dusky with a very weak brassy and purple sheen; pedicel orange with apical part of ventral process brown and dorsal margin dark orange-brown with a weak blue, brassy and purple lustre; funicle mainly similarly coloured to pedicel, but F6 dorsally pale orange; clava dark brown, mixed orange-brown towards base ventrally; thorax generally orange with propleuron, prosternum and mesosternum dark brown; mesoscutum with a weak blue 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 sheen; legs, including coxae, pale orange to orange, with hind basitarsus almost completely, and apical tarsomere completely, dark brown; fore wing (Fig. 1298) mostly infuscate but hyaline towards base and at apex, venation orange-brown; hind wing (Fig. 1302) very weakly infumate brown; propodeum orange with a weak brassy lustre, setae outside spiracle 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 dusky pale orange.

Head about 3.6X 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 between posterior ocellus and occipital margin; ocelli forming an angle of about 70°; 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 2X diameter of facet; interantennal prominence dorsally acute with a weak median ridge; antenna as in Fig. 1300; scape about 1.7X as long as broad, subtrapezoidal, proximal part of dorsal margin about 1.7X as long as distal part and with proximal part of ventral margin about 2X as long as distal part, distal part of dorsal margin 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; clava hardly more than 1.1X as long as pedicel and funicle combined, nearly 2.5X as long as broad, sutures strongly oblique, sensory area about 2.9X as long a ventral margin, apex strongly obliquely truncate; narrowest point of frontovertex slightly in front of anterior ocellus; malar sulcus absent; mandible with two acute teeth and a truncate upper tooth. Relative measurements: HW 75, HH 52, FVL 43, FV 21, POL 7.5, OOL 3, OCL 3, AOL 6.5, EL 40, EW 32, MS 30, SL 38, SW 23.

Thorax with polygonally reticulate to imbricate-reticulate sculpture on pronotum and mesoscutum that is of similar depth to that between posterior ocelli; mesoscutum, along mid-line, with an irregular series of pores; 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 2X as broad as long; scutellum about 1.2X as broad as long; mid tibia with an external carina for most of its length; hind femur about 3.3X as long as broad; fore wing with venation and setation as in Figs 1298, 1301; costal cell with 1 or 2 setae dorsally at apex; apices of postmarginal and stigmal veins connected by a naked, hyaline streak; propodeum medially about 0.15X as long as scutellum, with some shallow, reticulate sculpture medially a weak transverse carina running from anterior margin submedially towards spiracle, 6 or 7 setae anterior to and outside spiracle. Relative measurements: FWL 72.5, FWW 31; HWL 57, HWW 16.

Gaster with hypopygium reaching about 0.8X to apex; last tergite about 0.8X as long as mid tibia, with apex broadly rounded; ovipositor strongly exserted, the exserted part about 1.6X as long as mid tibial spur or 0.5X length mid tibia. Relative measurements: GL 46 [MT 65].

Paratype. Funicle with linear sensilla present only on F6. Mesoscutum with scattered pores along midline and a group of 4 or 5 near posterolateral margin; anterolateral projections of hypopygium (Fig. 1299) about half its overall length. Relative measurements: OL 58.5, GL 23 [MT 32].

Variation. Females vary in overall length from 1.50-1.77mm, otherwise very little variation noted in material examined.

Male. Unknown.

DISTRIBUTION. Costa Rica.

HOSTS. Unknown.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.

Type material. Holotype E: COSTA RICA, San José, Zurqui de Moravia , 1600m, i-ii.1992 (P. Hanson) . Paratypes: COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, Monteverde , 15-16.vii.1986 (L. Masner) . Holotype and paratype in NHMUK .

COMMENTS. Anicetus apatos has the funicle clearly longer than the basal clava segment (measured dorsally), the apex of the scape dorsally rounded and the pedicel flattened dorsally, which places it in the abyssinicus group as defined by Annecke (1967). 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). See also comments under cheras (p. 516).