Orixia, 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 : 144-145

Genus ORIXIA gen.nov.

Type species: Orixia philotes sp.nov. Gender feminine.

Female. Length about 0.8-1.2mm.

Body moderately robust, not flattened; generally orange, head sometimes black; fore wing weakly to moderately strongly infuscate.

Head triangular in profile, about 1.3-1.4X as high as deep, evenly and gently rounded from occipital margin to top of scrobes and then angled at approximately 90° towards mouth margin and more or less straight; in facial view, subcircular, slightly broader than high, about 4X as wide as frontovertex; a slender, elongate depression adjacent to eye margin near posterior ocellus; eye reaching occipital margin, clothed in very conspicuous, dense setae that are at least as long as diameter of facet; frontovertex with evenly spaced piliferous punctures along inner eye margin; scrobes shallow, but well defined dorsally and laterally, more or less ∩-shaped, meeting and quite smooth; interantennal prominence acute dorsally with shallow, regular, polygonally reticulate sculpture; torulus separated from mouth margin by about its own length, upper margin about level with lowest eye margin; scape slightly broadened and flattened, widest about middle; funicle 6-segmented, segments clearly transverse or quadrate, becoming progressively slightly broader distally; linear sensilla on all funicle segments or absent from proximal segments; clava 3-segmented, sutures hardly oblique, subparallel, outer suture sometimes virtually absent so that clava is more or less 2-segmented, sensory area at apex and slightly enlarged giving it a truncate appearance; malar sulcus present, distinct; clypeal margin quite strongly concave; dorsal tentorial arms reaching frontovertex about midway between eye and torulus, about level with lowest eye margin; mandible with a small lower tooth and a very broad, straight truncation, internal surface with a socketed peg near ventral margin ( Fig. 364, arrowed); palp formula 4-3.

Thorax with pronotum short, its posterior margin strongly concave; notaular lines absent; mesoscutum about 1.6X as broad as long; scutellum slightly longer than broad; dorsum of thorax quite strongly sculptured with sculpture on mesoscutum about as deep as that on scutellum; axillae meeting medially; scutellum with fairly dense, evenly distributed setae, those at apex only slightly longer than those at base; scutellum with 4-6 small subapical pits or pores; fore wing about 2.5-2.7X as long as broad, weakly infuscate; costal cell of fore wing with at least two lines of setae ventrally and with a single line of setae dorsally in apical 0.4X; junction of submarginal vein and marginal vein indicated by a hyaline break; parastigma not downcurved and hardly swollen, without any backwardly directed setae; linea calva entire, open; filum spinosum present, not strong; marginal vein about 5X as long as broad; postmarginal vein at least about half as long as stigmal vein; stigmal vein subsessile, about 0.5X as long as marginal vein; uncus present, campaniform sensilla in a line; mesophragma projecting slightly into gaster; mid tibial spur shorter than basitarsus; mesopleuron well separated from base of gaster by propodeum and metapleuron; propodeum not more than 0.2X as long as scutellum with distinct carinae and sculpture medially and strongly sculptured laterally, with only 2 or 3 setae near spiracle.

Petiole about 0.4X as wide as propodeum and anelliform; Gt2 of gaster on each side with a very close pair of small groups of tiny pores near the anterior margin; syntergum roughly U-shaped, shorter than mid tibia with apex truncate; hypopygium about 2.3X as broad as long with anterior margin weakly concave and posterior margin straight or weakly convex; paratergites absent; outer plates of ovipositor free, detached from Gt7 and slightly more than 2X as long as broad; ovipositor hidden or hardly exserted, about 0.7X as long as mid tibia or 3.5X as long as gonostylus; base of second valvifer with a very reduced semi-circular sheet with posterior margin hardly concave and the apical part without any subapical setae; gonostylus free.

Male. Length about 1.0mm.

Virtually identical to female, differing only in genitalia structure. Antenna with clava 3-segmented, but with outer suture incomplete; phallobase slightly less than 3X as long as broad; digitus about 2X as long as broad with a single apical hook, paramere not developed, without apical seta; cuspis seta present; aedeagus about 4.5X as long as broad, about one-third as long as mid tibia, hardly longer than mid tibial spur.

DISTRIBUTION. Costa Rica, Ecuador.

HOSTS. Unknown.

COMMENTS. The triangular profile of the head and presence of a socketed peg near the ventral margin of the mandible suggests that Orixia may belong to the tribe Habrolepidini . However, females of Orixia lack a slightly, but distinctly enlarged parastigma and have a distinctly convex scutellum (mostly dorsally flat in Habrolepidini ). The structure of the ovipositor, particularly the proximal part of the second valvifer with the reduced semicircular sheet that has a hardly concave posterior margin also distinguishes Orixia the genera currently include in the tribe. Further to this, the antenna of the male is very similar to that of the female whereas in males of Habrolepidini the antenna either has a 2 segmented funicle and extremely long clava (Habrolepidina) or the funicle is composed of 6 elongate segments clothed in whorls of long setae that are several times longer than the diameter of the segments (Comperiellina). Another distinguishing feature of Orixia is the presence of 2 or 3 pairs of subapical pits or pores on the scutellum. Unfortunately, these can only be seen on slide-mounted material.