Scelio ntchisii 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 : 117-118

Scelio ntchisii Yoder sp. n. Figures 269-274; Morphbank 60

Description.

Female body length: 4.40 mm (n=1). Color of scape in female: brown. 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: narrow to moderately wide. 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: with slight but prominent obliterated/smooth patch, otherwise 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: with medial furrow, otherwise smooth. Surface of propodeal shelf in female: sculptured throughout. Color of metasoma in female: brown, T5-T6 dark brown. Sculpture of T6: coarsely rugose reticulate.

Diagnosis.

Scelio ntchisii is most similar to Scelio somaliensis with which it shares the similarly shaped, compact mesosoma and percurrent transverse pronotal carina. It differs from Scelio somaliensis by the coarse reticulate sculpture of T6 (longitudinal, fine in Scelio somaliensis ) and the brown scape (yellow in Scelio somaliensis ). Scelio ntchisii is the only species in the ipomeae-group to have the oxter more or less sculptured (reticulate) throughout.

Etymology.

The epithet is used as a genitive noun derived from the name of the type locality.

Link to distribution map.

http://hol.osu.edu/map-large.html?id=244751

Material examined.

Holotype, female: MALAWI: Ntchisi forest Reserve, 1500m, 3. XII– 4.XII.1980, Lundt & Stuckenberg, OSUC 212835 (deposited in CNCI).