Episyron keralaensis Anju, Girish Kumar & Thejass, 2024

Anju, K., Kumar, P. Girish & Thejass, P., 2024, Review of the spider wasp genus Episyron Schiødte, 1837 (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) from India, with description of three new species, Zootaxa 5405 (4), pp. 562-576 : 565-568

Episyron keralaensis Anju, Girish Kumar & Thejass , sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A292974A-3C0F-423A-973A-8851501BBD46

Figures 1–16

Type material. Holotype ♀, India: Kerala, Wayanad district, Panamaram (11º44’25’’N, 76º04’18’’E), 10.iv.2021, Coll. K. Anju, [ ZSIK] ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI / WGRC /IR/INV.24957 . Paratypes. Kerala: 1♀, Kozhikode district, Madappally (11º38’38’’N, 75º34’14’’E), 28.viii.2020, Coll. K. Anju, [ ZSIK] ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI / WGRC /IR/ INV.24958 ; 1♀ Wayanad district, Panamaram (11º44’25’’N, 76º04’18’’E), 10.iv.2021, Coll. K. Anju, [ ZSIK] ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI / WGRC /IR/INV.24959 ; 1♂, Kozhikode district, Balussery (11º26’36’’N, 75º49’05’’E), 27.iii.2019, Coll.C. Binoy.Regd.No. ZSI / WGRC /IR/INV.24960 ; 4♂, Kasaragod district, Ranipuram (12º25’45’’N, 75º21’44’’E), 22.i.2020, Coll. K. Anju, [ ZSIK] ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI / WGRC /IR/INV.24961–24964 .

Diagnosis. The female of new species differs from all other congeners by the following set of characters: pale yellow stripes along inner orbits interrupted at vertex; clypeus black with pale yellow markings; pale yellow band along posterior margin of pronotum interrupted at middle; small round spot on mesoscutum postero-medially; hind tibia black with pale yellow fascia in dorsal face basally; tibial spurs pale yellow; basal pale yellow fascia on T2, T3 and T5; head wider than mesosoma; SMC2 and SMC3 almost equal in size; crossvein 2m-cu distinctly curved basally; and long black setae on T6 moderate, concentrated laterally.

Description of Female. Holotype, female ( Figs 1–12 ). Body length 8.62 mm (8.41 mm – 9.15 mm for paratypes); length of fore wing 7.38 mm (7.1 mm – 7.95 mm for paratypes).

Colour. Overall colour black with pale yellow markings as follows: narrow stripes along inner orbits interrupted at vertex, stripes along posterior margin of eyes, stripes along anterior margin of clypeus subapically, band along posterior margin of pronotum interrupted at middle, small round spot on mesoscutum postero-medially, basal fascia on T2, T3 and T5, and fascia at dorsal region of hind tibia basally; antenna brownish black; tibial spurs pale; pale spot on apical dorsal region of all coxae; wings fusco-hyaline, infuscated at apex; veins and pterostigma brown.

Pubescence. Pubescence moderate; pronotum, propodeum and T1 having genus specific metallic reflection with bluish white appressed flattened and squamiform setae; whitish pubescence moderate in frons and clypeus; mesosoma highly pubescent in some regions with moderate pubescence on pleura; silver shiny pubescence at base of metanotum and at two concavities of metapostnotum; pubescence on propodeum more concentrated at posterior half; soft long setae on mesosoma, mainly concentrated along lateral sides of propodeum; T6 with long suberect brownish black setae concentrated laterally.

Head. Head a trifle wider than high in frontal view (1.12–1.2×), wider than mesosoma ( Fig. 3 ); minutely punctate, punctuations hardly visible over underlying pubescence on frons; shallow median line extending from anterior ocellus to interantennal space; eyes 1.89–1.93× as long as wide ( Fig. 5 ), slightly emarginated above middle frons with MID slightly greater than LID, UID 0.73–0.8× MID ( Fig. 3 ); ocelli in triangle, anterior ocellus slightly wider than posterior ocelli, POD about as long as OOD (0.21: 0.22) ( Fig. 4 ); clypeus large, nearly flat with slight convexity, more than twice as broad as long, anterior margin widely arched, posterior margin transverse ( Fig. 3 ); mandible long, crossing each other, bidentate; malar space reduced, less than half of pedicel; toruli situated slightly above posterior clypeus margin; antennae long, closely placed; F1 the longest flagellomere 1.69–1.73× as long as scape, scape longer than twice its width; pedicel as wide as long; F2–F5 almost equal in length with a slight decrease in length towards the apical flagellomeres; gena narrower than compound eye in lateral view; occiput carinate.

Mesosoma. Pronotum 2–2.14× as wide as long, angulate postero-laterally; mesoscutum large, prominent, 1.36– 1.4× as long as scutellum in dorsal view ( Fig. 7 ); abbreviated furrow on each side close to the apex not reaching anterior margin; scutellum with conspicuous prescutellar sulcus, medially triangularly raised; metanotum curved; metapostnotum much reduced with two curves at posterior margin ( Fig. 7 ); propodeum 1.28–1.38× as wide as long along middle, no apparent sculpturing ( Fig. 7 ), posteriorly with rounded steep slope at apex.

Legs. Tibiae and tarsi with irregular scattered spines throughout, apically with different length spines; fore tarsus with cylindrical tapering spines, tarsomere 1 with three outer spines; tarsal claws bifid; hind basitarsus 0.62– 0.69× hind tibia, hind tibial spur long, 0.77–0.81× as long as hind basitarsus.

Wings. Fore wing with upper margin of SMC2 and SMC3 almost of equal length; length of SMC3 less than half of its distance from the wing apex; SMC2 and SMC3 receiving crossveins 1m-cu and 2m-cu respectively at the middle; crossvein 2m-cu curved basally; marginal cell long about twice its width; pterostigma shorter than vein r-rs ( Fig. 12 ); crossvein cu-a of hind wing arc-like forming obtuse angle with vein A.

Metasoma. Smooth; slightly longer than mesosoma, subsessile, T1 thick at base ( Fig. 8 ); apical segment slightly acute.

Male. ( Figs 13–16 ).

Resembles female in general appearance and coloration with slight variations in markings. However, as in the case of other genera, male is smaller and slender than females with following differences: the genus specific bluish white shiny pubescence seen on T 2 in addition to T1, where as in female, pubescence mainly concentrated on T1; antennae shorter and stouter and ventrally brownish in colour in contrast to the long slender, black antennae of female ( Fig. 14 ); and T6 is pale almost entirely, as compared to the black T 6 in female. Hypopygium and genitalia as in figures 15 & 16.

Remarks. Occurrence of both males and females in the same habitat along with the similarity in morphology and colour patterns supports sex association.

Etymology. The species name refers to the Indian state of Kerala, where the holotype was collected.

Variation. Pale yellow markings on body segments vary in intensity and distribution in paratypes along with variation in the relative density of pubescence.

Distribution. India (Kerala).

Comparison. The female of new species E. keralaensis Anju, Girish Kumar & Thejass , sp. nov. closely resembles E. arrogans in general appearance, morphology and coloration of the body. However it differs from E. arrogans as follows: head wider than mesosoma (in E. arrogans , head not wider than mesosoma); fore wing with upper margin of SMC2 and SMC3 almost equal in length (in E. arrogans, SMC 3 is smaller than SMC2); crossvein 2m-cu of fore wing basally curved (in E. arrogans , crossvein 2m-cu is almost straight); and forewing SMC2 receives crossvein 1m-cu medially (in E. arrogans, SMC 2 receives crossvein 1m-cu beyond the middle of basal margin).

Figures

FIGURES 1–8. Episyron keralaensis Anju, Girish Kumar & Thejass, sp. nov. Holotype, ♀. 1, habitus, lateral view; 2, habitus, dorsal view; 3, head, frontal view; 4, head, dorsal view; 5, head, lateral view; 6, mesosoma, lateral view; 7, mesosoma, dorsal view; 8, metasoma, lateral view. Scale bar: 1, 2—1 mm; 6, 8—0.5 mm; 3, 4, 5, 7—0.25 mm.

FIGURES 9–12. Episyron keralaensis Anju, Girish Kumar & Thejass, sp. nov. Holotype, ♀. 9, metasoma, dorsal view; 10, metasoma, ventral view; 11, hind tibia; 12, wings. Scale bar: 11, 12—0.75 mm; 9, 10—0.5 mm.

FIGURES 13–16. Episyron keralaensis Anju, Girish Kumar & Thejass, sp. nov. Paratype, ♂. 13, habitus, dorso-lateral view; 14, head and antenna, lateral view; 15, S4–S6 and hypopygium, ventral view; 16, genitalia, dorsal view. Scale bar: 13—1 mm; 14, 16—0.5 mm; 15—0.1 mm.