Macroocula brothersi Gadallah & Soliman

Gadallah, Neveen S., Soliman, Ahmed M., Al-Shahat, Ahmed M. & Hossni, Mohammed T., 2015, The genus Macroocula Panfilov in Egypt, with two new species (Hymenoptera: Bradynobaenidae: Apterogyninae), Zootaxa 4018 (3), pp. 396-410 : 398-400

Macroocula brothersi Gadallah & Soliman , sp. nov.

( Figs 1−5 )

Material examined. Holotype ♂: Egypt, Wadi Shab (Shalateen, Red Sea) [22°47'45"N, 35°19'06"E], 10.iii.1928 light trap, collector unknown [ CUE]. Paratypes 3 ♂: with same labels as holotype [ CUE].

Description. MALE (holotype). Body length 10.5 mm. Colour. Head including antennal tubercle, antenna, basal third of mandible and palpi, mesosoma including tegula and legs and first metasomal segment ferruginous yellow to red; apical 2/3 of mandible and terminal hook of metasoma red; second and third metasomal segments black, posterior rim of both segments ferruginous red; metasomal segments 4−7 dark ferruginous yellow to ferruginous red; fore tibial spurs yellowish, mid and hind ones waxy white; eye black; ocelli glassy; wings hyaline, forewing with light brown to yellow veins. Pubescence. Head and mesosoma including legs clothed with moderately long erect to suberect white setae, denser on clypeus and antennal scrobe than elsewhere; metasoma densely clothed with long erect white setae; metasomal segments 3−6 apically with fringe of sparse white setae (well-developed on T3 and on sterna); felt line on T2 with dense white setae; S6 with lateral bristels stout and reddish, remarkably different in size and colour from those in the middle which are pale.

Head. In dorsal view as wide as pronotum, abruptly convergent behind eyes, without prominent posterolateral angle; face and vertex punctate-subreticulate, face with large smooth area in front of mid ocellus, vertex slightly swollen posterolaterally and sparsely punctate beyond lateral ocelli; antennal scrobe punctulate; eye and ocelli large and prominent, the former spherical; MOD 1.2 × F1 diameter; OOD 0.7 × IOD; malar space distinctly short, 0.15 × LED and 0.5 × F1 diameter; distance between antennal tubercles 0.7 × as long as tubercle length; clypeus convex, smooth basally and densely punctate apically; gena puncticulate. Mandible slender, pointed apically and edentate. Antenna long, scape as long as its maximal width, sparsely punctate; F1 4.5 × as long as wide, scarcely longer than F2 and about 1.2 × as long as F3.

Mesosoma. Pronotum barely visible in dorsal view, with anterior face vertical, humeral angle gently rounded and posterior margin broadly concave, foveate dorsolaterally; pronotal lateral face foveate anteriorly and longitudinally ridged posteriorly. Mesoscutum sparsely punctate, punctures 1−2 diameters apart, with impunctate (smooth) median longitudinal stripe on anterior half; notauli complete, deep and widely divergent anteriorly; scutellum punctate-reticulate, with median longitudinal narrow smooth stripe extending along whole length; tegula smooth. Propodeum foveate-reticulate on dorsal face, posterior face rather gently declivous and slightly concave (hollow) and smooth. Mesopleuron punctate-reticulate dorsally, sparsely punctate to subreticulate ventrally; metasternal process strongly bidentate, space between denticles U-shaped. Fore wing with brachial cell 2.8 × as long as wide and 1.3 × as long as anterior vein of cubital cell ( Fig. 2 ); hind wing with 9 hamuli; hind trochanter ventrally with a protuberance smaller than that on mid trochanter ( Fig. 3 ).

Metasoma: T1 subcylindrical, 1.4 × as long as maximal width, foveate-reticulate; T2 pear-shaped, as long as its maximal width ( Fig. 1 ); T2−T3 punctate-reticulate, punctures on T3 elongate and somewhat sparse on disc; T4−T5 strigulate basally, finely closely punctate posteriorly; T6−T7 coarsely punctate. S1 transversely wrinkled; S2 punctate-subreticulate; S3 sparsely punctate (punctures 1 diameter apart), with smooth transverse area subapically; S4−S6 smooth basally, finely punctate along apical rim; hypopygium (S8) finely closely punctate. Male genitalia (see Figs 4 a, b, 5a, b, c).

FEMALE unknown.

Distribution. Egypt: Shalateen, Red Sea.

Remarks. This species resembles the Arabian species, M. ohli Pagliano, 2002 and M. silvioi Pagliano, 2002, in having a ventral protuberance on the hind trochanter, but it differs from them remarkably in the following: the protuberance on the hind trochanter is much smaller than that on the mid trochanter (protuberances on mid and hind trochanter are similar in M. ohli and M. silvioi); body more or less ferruginous yellow except for second and third metasomal segments that are black (uniformly pale yellow in M. ohli and bright yellow to almost white, with scattered black spots on mesoscutum and very slightly brownish tint on disc of T2 and T 3 in M. silvioi).

Etymology. This species is named in honour of Prof. Denis J. Brothers (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa).

Figures

FIGURES 1 − 7. 1 − 5. Macroocula brothersi sp. nov., ♂, holotype. 1. Habitus, dorsal view; 2. Fore wing; 3. Mid and hind trochanters; 4, 5 Male genitalia: 4 (a) dorsal view, (b) lateral view; 5 (a) ventral view, (b) dorsal view, (c) lateral view. 6, 7. M. magna (Invrea), ♀. 6. First metasomal segment, lateral view; 7. T 2 & T 3.