Sulcomesitius breviculus ( Xu, He & Terayama, 2003 ) Wang & He & Chen, 2024

Wang, Chunhong, He, Junhua & Chen, Xuexin, 2024, Revision of subfamily Mesitiinae (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from China, European Journal of Taxonomy 960 (1), pp. 1-61 : 32-35

Sulcomesitius breviculus ( Xu, He & Terayama, 2003) comb. nov.

Fig. 11

Heterocoelia brevicula Xu, He & Terayama, 2003: 320–322 .

Diagnosis

Sulcomesitius breviculus ( Xu, He & Terayama, 2003) can be distinguished from other species of the genus Sulcomesitius by having the anterolateral corner of the pronotum rounded, the length of PPP at most equal to its basal width, the hypopygium distinctly narrower anteriorly, and the dorsal harpe of the genitalia 8-shaped ( Fig. 11I ).

Material examined

Holotype

CHINA – Zhejiang • ♂; Kaihua County, Gutian Mountain ; 22 Jul. 1992; Hong Wu leg.; ZJUH 949066 .

Paratypes (2 ♂♂)

CHINA – Zhejiang • 1 ♂; same collection data as for holotype; ZJUH 949082 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding but 17 Jul. 1992; Yun Ma leg.; ZJUH 923783 .

Other material (18 ♂♂)

CHINA – Zhejiang • 1 ♂; same collection data as for holotype but 18 Jul. 1992; Yun Ma leg.; ZJUH 923914 • 3 ♂♂; same collection data as for preceding but Xuexin Chen leg.; ZJUH 923359 , 923443 , 923551 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding but 19 Aug. 2003; Wuqing Fan leg.; ZJUH 20047497 • 2 ♂♂; same collection data as for preceding but 2 Jul. 2005; Min Shi leg.; ZJUH 200601769 , 200601849 • 7 ♂♂; same collection data as for preceding but 3 Jul. 2005; Qiong Wu leg.; ZJUH 200602041 , 200602046 , 200602047 , 200602048 , 200602053 , 200602065 , 200602103 • 1 ♂; Longquan City, Fengyang Mountain ; 7 Aug. 2003; Xiaoxia Yu leg.; ZJUH 20034610 • 1 ♂; Linan County, Qingliang Mountain ; 10 Aug. 2005; Hongying Zhang leg.; ZJUH 200603355 • 1 ♂; Linan County, Qianmutian Glacier ; 25 Jul. 2011; Shengnan Song leg.; ZJUH 201503630 . – Yunnan • 1 ♂; Tengchong City, Gaoligong Mountain ; 20–21 Jul. 2006; Jie Zeng leg.; ZJUH 200701076 .

Re-description

Male

MEASUREMENTS (n = 21). Body length 3.71–5.32 mm; length of fore wing 2.19–3.27 mm; LH 0.96– 1.03 × WH; WF 1.21–1.41 × LE; LE 0.42–0.47 × LH; LE 1.44–1.82× DEV; POL 1.54–2.0 × AOL; OOL 0.76–0.93 × WOT; DPV 0.99–1.66× DAO; malar space 0.86–1.73 × distance between posterior ocelli and vertex crest; median length of pronotum 0.38–0.44× width of pronotum along posterior margin; median length of dorsal surface of MPC 0.9–1.0 × its half-width; length of PPP 0.12–0.22 × median length of dorsal surface of MPC; length of 2r-rs&Rs 2 v 0.85–1.08× length of Sc+ R 2 v; length of posterior branches of hypopygium 0.42–0.53 × length of hypopygium.

COLOURATION. Body dark bronw to black. Antenna yellowish brown, darker apically. Fore wing light brown, slightly darker on apical half; veins brown or yellowish brown, pterostigma yellowish brown. Legs yellowish brown, coxae and femora brown. Metasoma brown to dark brown, anterior margin of T 2 with pair of yellowish-brown semicircular spots.

PUBESCENCE. Body with short setae. Maxillary and labial palpi with dense, short setae.Antenna with short suberect setae, length of setae 0.25 × width of flagellomere II ( Fig. 11C ). Eye with sparse short setae, nearly 5.0× diameter of an ommatidium. Wings with short dense brown setae. Metasomal segments with setae longer than setae of head and mesosoma, T 1 with sparse setae posterolaterally, T 2 with basal triangular area glabrous.

HEAD. Slightly longer than wide, LH 1.04 × WH. Clypeus trilobite; medio-clypeal lobe with anterior margin acute medially; medio-clypeal carina not extending into frons, arched in lateral view. Antenna slender, length of flagellomere II 1.88× its width, 0.75 × length of flagellomere I. Frons coriaceous and densely foveolate ( Fig. 11B ); WF 1.34 × LE. Contour of eye protruding in antero-dorsal view; LE 0.43 × LH, LE 1.58 × DEV. Anterior ocellus partly anterior to imaginary top line of eyes; POL 1.57 × AOL, OOL 0.93× WOT, DPV 1.27 × DAO. Vertex coriaceous and densely foveolate, sides of head behind eyes rounded and slightly converging posteriorly, vertex crest protruding. Malar space 0.89 × distance between posterior ocelli and vertex crest. Gena coriaceous, densely foveolate, with shallow foveolae ventrally. Occipital carina complete, occiput coriaceous with shallow punctures. Medioccipito-genal suture present.

MESOSOMA. Dorsal pronotal area coriaceous and densely foveolate, median length of dorsal pronotal area 0.42 × width along posterior pronotal margin; anterolateral corner rounded; median pronotal sulcus present ( Fig. 11D ); lateral pronotal area obliquely striate; cervical pronotal area coarse. Mesoscutum elevated, coriaceous with shallow punctures; median mesonotal sulcus absent, with a fovea near posterior margin; basal half with medio-line carinate ( Fig. 11D ); notauli complete and converging posteriorly, parapsidal signum shallow and absent near anterior margin. Mesoscutellum slightly elevated, coriaceous, densely foveolate with punctures; mesoscutum-mesoscutellar sulcus present, laterally slightly dilated ( Fig. 11E ). Median length of dorsal surface of MPC 0.93 × its half-width; metapostnotum strongly areolate, metapostnotal median carina complete, metapostnotal-propodeal carina complete and converging posteriorly ( Fig. 11E ); dorsal propodeal area transversely striate; paraspiracular and lateral marginal carinae of MPC complete; length of PPP 0.15× median length of dorsal surface of MPC; transverse posterior carina of MPC complete; propodeal declivity areolate, median and lateral carinae complete; anterior metapleural area shiny, weakly striate; lateral surface of MPC with submarginal carina and posterior carina, areolate. Propleuron coriaceous, propleural epicoxal sulcus present. Mesopleuron coriaceous and densely foveolate; subalar impression weak; posterior oblique sulcus of mesopleuron present and foveolate; postepicnemial sulcus present; ventral surface of mesopleuron coriaceous and irregularly foveolate, area between mesocoxa with three large foveae; anterior mesofurcal pit present and deep.

WINGS. Fore wing with 2r-rs&Rs 2 v slightly curved apically, 1.12 × Sc+ R 2 v; posterior margin of pterostigma protruding, prestigma absent ( Fig. 11G ); Cu 2 v present as yellowish-brown trace. Hind wing with four distal hamuli.

METASOMA. Metasomal terga shiny with punctures; T 1 with tiny sparse punctures, medio-longitudinal sulcus present on basal one-third; T 2 with sparse punctures separated by more than their own diameter; basal half of T 3–4 weakly coriaceous with punctures posteriorly. Metasomal sterna shiny, with variably sized punctures; S1 irregularly striate, metapostnotal median carina weak; S2 with dense, variably sized punctures. Hypopygium longer than wide; basal part of hypopygium with lateral margin distinctly incurved ( Fig. 11H ); posterior branches distinctly narrower than median notch, inner margin with long setae, length of posterior branches 0.45× length of hypopygium.

MALE GENITALIA. Harpe bilobate, basal half of dorsal harpe filamentary, apical half 8-shaped ( Fig. 11I ), longer than ventral harpe. Inner margin of gonostipe with series of sharp parallel carinae ( Fig. 11J ). Cuspis with apical margin incurved; digitus bent and papillate apically, with setae basally; aedeagus bottle-shaped ( Fig. 11I ).

Female

Unknown.

Distribution

China (Zhejiang, Yunnan) ( Fig. 20 ).

Remarks

This species was included by Xu et al. (2003) in the genus Heterocoelia because it has the anterior corners of the clypeus rectangular laterally, the mesoscutum without a median mesonotal sulcus and the apex of the PPP rounded in lateral view. However, the generic identification of the males is mainly based on the shape of the hypopygium ( Argaman 2003; Azevedo et al. 2018). After studying the males, we transfer H. breviculus from the genus Heterocoelia to the genus Sulcomesitius because the hypopygium of this species is longer than wide, with the posterior branches lobose and 0.45 × the length of the hypopygium (posterior branches short and broad in Heterocoelia ); the head and pronotum densely foveolate; the pronotum with a median pronotal sulcus and PPP present (although comparatively short compared to other species of Sulcomesitius ).

Figures

Fig. 11. Sulcomesitius breviculus (Xu, He & Terayama, 2003), holotype, ♂ (ZJUH 949066). A. Habitus, lateral view. B. Head, antero-dorsal view. C. Antenna. D. Pronotum and mesonotum, dorsal view. E. MPC, dorsal view. F. T2, dorsal view. G. Fore wing. H. Hypopygium. I. Genitalia, dorsal view. J. Genitalia, ventral view. Scale bars: 0.20 mm.

Fig. 20. Distribution map of species of Mestiinae from China.