Centistidea tihamica Ahmad & Pandey, 2019

Liu, Zhen & Polaszek, Andrew, 2024, Afrotropical Centistidea Rohwer, 1914 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) with description of four new species, ZooKeys 1216, pp. 83-100 : 83-100

Centistidea tihamica Ahmad & Pandey, 2019

Centistidea tihamica Ahmad & Pandey, 2019: 43 . Holotype in the Insect Collection of the Department of Zoology , Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India (not examined).

Diagnosis.

Body length 1.8 mm, mostly yellow-brown; length of eye 1.5 × temple in dorsal view; head and vertex indistinctly punctate; 1 st flagellomere 1.25 × longer than 2 nd; penultimate flagellomere 2.5–3.0 × as long as wide; mesoscutum shiny with few distinct punctures, notauli only anteriorly impressed; scutellar sulcus distinct, present as a narrow groove and crenulated; medio-posterior depressions of scutellum semicircular and separated (from the original image); propodeum almost smooth with a complete median longitudinal carina bifurcate posteriorly, median carina of propodeum absent behind level of costulae; pterostigma with a long slender, apical expansion, 2.2 × longer than wide; vein r very prominent and 0.2 × as long as the height of pterostigma; vein 1 - SR absent (from the original image); T 1 4.0 × as long as its maximum width; T 2 subtriangular, smooth, laterally membranous, and longitudinally striated; T 3 longitudinally striated; ovipositor sheaths 0.15 × as long as fore wing (following Ghramh et al. 2019).

Host.

Unknown.

Distribution.

Saudi Arabia. Although not strictly in the Afrotropical region, the species is included here for future reference, in case it should eventually be discovered in the region.

Note.

No specimens were available for this study. Ghramh et al. (2019) described it as the first species of Centistidea from the Afrotropical region. However, when we examined the original descriptions and images and related specimens, all species originally described as Mirax including africana , leucopterae , and mubilibana in this area are all Centistidea by possessing medio-longitudinal carina on propodeum and more or less impressed notauli on anterior mesoscutum.