Eupelmus (Eupelmus) palauensis (Yoshimoto & Ishii) Yoshimoto & Ishii, 2017

Gibson, Gary A. P., 2017, Synonymy of Reikosiella Yoshimoto under Merostenus Walker (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Eupelmidae), with a checklist of world species and a revision of those species with brachypterous females, Zootaxa 4255 (1), pp. 1-65 : 61

Eupelmus (Eupelmus) palauensis (Yoshimoto & Ishii) n. comb.

Figs 144, 145

Merostenus palauensis Yoshimoto & Ishii, 1965: 161 –163. Holotype ♀ (USNM; type no. 67529).

Type material. This species was described based on two females, the holotype in the USNM and a paratype in the BPBM. The holotype is labelled “ KOROR I . , Palau | Islds.; limestone | ridge S. of inlet | 21 Jan.1948 / Pacific Sci. Board | Ent. Survey of | Micronesia | H.S. Dybus leg / HOLOTYPE Merostenus palauensis Yoshimoto & Ishii [red label, partly printed and partly handwritten]”. The holotype is point-mounted, entire, and although uncontorted the pronotal collar is not visible because it is covered by the posterior of the head and the right-angled fore wings partly conceal the scutellum and metanotum ( Fig. 144 ).

Remarks. Both the holotype ( Fig. 144 ) and the extensively damaged paratype have the pronotal collar concealed by the head. However, the holotype appears to have a metanotal-propodeal structure similar to that of E. guamensis and, as such, E. palauensis is provisionally classified in E. ( Eupelmus ). Also like E. guamensis is that the mesotibia lacks apical pegs. However, females of the two species differ in many other respects, including E. palauensis having a reticulate frontovertex and interantennal prominence ( Fig. 145 ) and, atypical for the genus, a flattened head. The frontovertex and interantennal prominence are in a similar flat plane compared to an abruptly angled, comparatively short lower face, and with sinuately produced lower parascrobal regions lateral to each torulus such that head structure is reminiscent of typical Arachnophaga Ashmead or some Lecaniobius Ashmead females, particularly those with the lower face paler than the frontovertex and interantennal prominence. The original description and dorsal and lateral habitus line illustrations given by Yoshimoto & Ishii (1965, fig. 27) are insufficient for the fore wings. The habitus figures illustrate the fore wings as spatulate and extending only to the base of the gaster, and they are described simply as ribbon-like. In fact, the brownish-infuscate fore wings are rightangle bent at the level of the posterior margin of the scutellum ( Fig. 144 ), with the basal region consisting of the bare basal cell and dorsally bare costal cell, and the right-angle bent disc composed of a wider basal portion whose posterior margin tapers, sinuately, over about the apical half into a very slender region consisting mostly of a vein along the leading margin, without evident stigmal and postmarginal veins; the disc is uniformly setose with dark setae and the vein along the leading margin terminates in 2 or 3 closely set longer setae.

Figures

FIGURES 144, 145. E. (Eupelmus) palauensis (Yoshimoto & Ishii) ♀: 144, lateral habitus (holotype); 145, head, frontal (paratype).