Lemophagus eburnipes Vas

Vas, Zoltán, Rezaei, Shoreh, Fallahzadeh, Majid, Mohammadi-Khoramabadi, Abbas, Saghaei, Nazila & Ljubomirov, Toskho, 2022, Contributions to the taxonomy, identification, and biogeography of Palaearctic Campopleginae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), with the descriptions of four new species from Iran, Zootaxa 5134 (2), pp. 261-274 : 268-270

Lemophagus eburnipes Vas , sp. nov.

Figs 9–12

Type material. Holotype: female, Iran, Larestan , 27°31’55.4”N, 54°26’1.36”E, 2018.04.21 –30., leg. Sh. Rezaei, No. 142, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155256 . Paratype: male, Iran, Larestan , 27°39’54”N, 54°16’39”E, 2018.04.10 –20., leg. Sh. Rezaei, No. 130, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155257 . The holotype and the paratype specimens are card-mounted, and are deposited in HNHM.

Diagnosis. The new species can be reliably identified by the following character states in combination: ocular-ocellar distance 0.7–0.8× as long as ocellus diameter; gena in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly narrowed behind eyes; malar space 0.6× as long as basal width of mandible; propodeal carinae distinctly developed, distalmost sections of costulae weakened; area basalis shortly trapezoidal; area superomedia hexagonal, as long as wide, convergent behind costulae, posteriorly opened; metasoma orange, except first tergite basally black; fore and middle coxae extensively blackish, hind coxa almost entirely to entirely black; femora orange; tibiae predominantly ivory.

Description. Female ( Figs 9–12 ). Body length ca. 7 mm, fore wing length ca. 5 mm.

Head: Antenna slender, with 32 flagellomeres; first flagellomere ca. 3.5× as long as its apical width; preapical flagellomeres longer than wide. Head transverse, matt, granulate-punctate, with moderately short hairs. Ocularocellar distance 0.8× as long as ocellus diameter, distance between lateral ocelli 1.8× as long as ocellus diameter. Inner eye orbits weakly indented, parallel ( Fig. 10 ). Gena short, in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly narrowed behind eyes ( Fig. 11 ). Occipital carina complete, reaching hypostomal carina distinctly before base of mandible; hypostomal carina not elevated. Frons flat, slightly impressed above toruli, median longitudinal carina obsolete. Face and clypeus flat in profile. Clypeus very weakly separated from face, rather wide, its apical margin weakly convex, sharp, medially slightly produced. Malar space 0.6× as long as basal width of mandible. Mandible relatively long, lower margin with narrow flange from base towards teeth, flange gradually narrowed before teeth; mandibular teeth of about equal length.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma matt, granulate with dense punctures, and with short, dense hairs. Pronotum with rather weak diagonal wrinkles on ventral half, epomia rather weak. Mesoscutum slightly longer than wide, convex in profile; notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove wide and deep. Scutellum convex in profile, without lateral carinae. Mesopleuron granulate-punctate, with weak diagonal wrinkles anterior to speculum; speculum smooth, polished. Epicnemial carina strong, pleural part bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it at about its middle height, transversal part (i.e., the part at the level of sternaulus running through the epicnemium to the ventral edge of pronotum) not developed, ventral part (i.e., behind fore coxae) not elevated. Sternaulus indistinct. Posterior transverse carina of mesosternum complete, slightly elevated, medially slightly excised. Metanotum 0.4× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron without juxtacoxal carina; submetapleural carina complete, little elevated. Pleural carina of propodeum complete; propodeal spiracle oval, separated from pleural carina by little less than its length, connected to pleural carina by a distinct ridge. Propodeum ( Fig. 12 ) convex in profile, granulate with weak punctures on anterior half, and with mostly transverse rugosity on posterior half. Propodeal carinae distinctly developed, distalmost sections of costulae weakened, median section of posterior transverse carina absent. Area basalis shortly trapezoidal, little shorter than its basal width. Area superomedia hexagonal, as long as wide, convergent behind costulae, posteriorly opened, costulae distinctly before its middle. Area petiolaris moderately wide, medially slightly impressed, confluent with area superomedia, their junction discernible. Fore wing with small, petiolate, rectangular areolet, 3 rs-m present, second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) distal to middle of areolet; distal abscissa of Rs almost straight; nervulus (cu-a) slightly postfurcal, about vertical; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted at about its middle by Cu 1a; lower external angle of second discal cell almost right-angled. Hind wing with nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a) vertical, not broken, not intercepted by discoidella (Cu 1); discoidella spectral, proximally not connected to nervellus. Coxae granulate with indistinct, superficial punctures. Hind femur ca. 5× as long as high. Inner spur of hind tibia ca. 0.5× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Tarsal claws thin, longer than arolium, basally weakly pectinate.

Metasoma: Metasoma weakly compressed, finely granulate to shagreened, with moderately dense, short hairs. First tergite ca. 2.5× as long as width of its apical margin; glymma absent, but first tergite laterally slightly impressed with weak, transverse wrinkles; dorsomedian carinae of first tergite distinct. Second tergite ca. 1.3× as long as its apical width; thyridium oval, its distance from basal margin of tergite about as long as its length. Posterior margins of apical tergites not excised. Ovipositor sheath about as long as apical depth of metasoma; ovipositor almost straight, dorsal preapical notch deep, distant from apex by about one third of total length of ovipositor.

Colour: Flagellum brown, ventrally orange-brown, scapus and pedicellus dorsally brown, ventrally yellow. Head black, except palpi and mandible yellowish, mandibular teeth brownish. Mesosoma black, except tegula ivory and posterior corner of pronotum with a small, indistinct yellowish spot. Metasoma orange, except basal 0.6 of first segment black and apical margin of second tergite very narrowly brownish; ovipositor sheath dark brown. Wings hyaline, wing veins and pterostigma brown. Fore and middle legs: coxae orange, basally extensively darkened, blackish; trochanters and trochantelli ivory; femora orange; tibiae dorsally ivory, ventrally orange; tarsi ivory, distalmost tarsomeres orange. Hind leg: coxa black; trochanter blackish, apically narrowly yellowish; trochantellus ivory; femur orange; tibia dorsally ivory, apically very narrowly orange, ventrally orange except basally ivory; tarsus ivory, apical margins of tarsomeres and distalmost tarsomere slightly darkened. Hairs silvery to greyish.

Male: Similar to female in all characters described above, except: antenna with 33 flagellomeres; ocular-ocellar distance 0.7× as long as ocellus diameter; second tergite ca. 1.2× as long as its apical width; hind coxa apically narrowly orange-brown; orange-coloured parts of hind femur and tibia slightly darker orange than in female.

Distribution. Iran.

Etymology. The specific epithet eburnipes (same form for all three grammatical genders) is a Latin adjective derived from the combination of the adjective eburnus, -a, -um and the noun pes, meaning ivory-legged; it refers to the colouration of the tibiae of the new species.

Remarks on identification. Lemophagus is a small genus, prior to this paper eight valid species were known (all Palaearctic, but one of them also occurs in the Nearctic region and another one also in the Oriental region) ( Yu et al. 2016). The new species is readily distinguishable from all other species by its extensively (dorsally entirely to almost entirely) ivory tibiae (cf. Sonan 1930; Kasparyan & Dbar 1985; Horstmann 2004). Lemophagus pulcher (Szépligeti) , a Western Palaearctic species, is superficially somewhat similar to the new species, however its hind tibia is entirely reddish (at most with a small, inconspicuous pale yellowish basal spot), ocular-ocellar distance distinctly longer than ocellus diameter, and area superomedia is closed posteriorly.

Figures

FIGURES 9–12. Lemophagus eburnipes Vas, sp. nov. 9, holotype female, lateral habitus, scale bar = 1 mm; 10, head, frontal view; 11, head, dorsal view; 12, propodeum, dorsal view.