Scelio somaliensis Yoder

Yoder, Matthew J., Valerio, Alejandro A., Polaszek, Andrew, Noort, Simon van, Masner, Lubomir & Johnson, Norman F., 2014, Monograph of the Afrotropical species of Scelio Latreille (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae), egg parasitoids of acridid grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae), ZooKeys 380, pp. 1-188 : 119

Scelio somaliensis Yoder sp. n. Figures 275-280; Morphbank 61

Description.

Female body length: 2.86 mm (n=1). Color of scape in female: yellow. Surface of dorsal head in female: covered throughout with very fine sculpture. Occipital carina in female: percurrent. Profile of posterior margin of head in lateral view: evenly arcuate, head appearing lenticular. Width of genal setae: thick. Shape of medial anteclypeus in female: narrow, strip like, truncate apically. Surface of mandible base in female: with fine reticulate sculpture. Form of mesosoma in female: compact, with propodeal shelf short very strongly sloped and barely visible in dorsal view. Surface of pronotal nucha in female: sculptured throughout. Transverse pronotal carina in female: percurrent, not interrupted medially. Shape of mesoscutellum: semicircular to weakly transverse, evenly rounded posteriorly. Surface of propodeal nucha in female: smooth throughout. Surface of propodeal shelf in female: sculptured throughout. Color of metasoma in female: brown. Sculpture of T6: finely longitudinally striae.

Diagnosis.

This species is most similar to Scelio ntchisii which shares the similarly shaped compact mesosoma and percurrent transverse pronotal carina. It differs in the fine longitudinal sculpture of T6 (coarsely reticulate in Scelio ntchisii ) and the yellow scape (brown in Scelio ntchisii ).

Etymology.

The epithet is used as an adjective derived from the country of the type locality.

Link to distribution map.

http://hol.osu.edu/map-large.html?id=244753

Material examined.

Holotype, female: SOMALIA: Mogadishu, Shabelle (Shabelli) Valley, Afgooye (Afgoi), 25. V– 31.V.1979, malaise trap, F. Bin, OSUC 212608 (deposited in CNCI).