Neuroscelio lagunai Valerio & Austin

Valerio, Alejandro A., Masner, Lubomír, Austin, Andrew D. & Johnson, Norman F., 2009, The genus Neuroscelio Dodd (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae s. l.) reviewed: new species, distributional update, and discussion of relationships, Zootaxa 2306, pp. 29-43 : 33-34

Neuroscelio lagunai Valerio & Austin , new species

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D755A250-60F2-479A-AB5F-B8C3C411FF84 urn:lsid:biosci.ohio-state.edu:osuc_concepts:245136 Figure 13–18; Morphbank9

Description. Female: Body length: 2.85 mm. Body color: head and mesosoma black; legs, fore and mid coxae, A1, A2 light yellow; metasoma, A3–A12, hind coxae dark brownish yellow; mandibular teeth brownish yellow, mandible otherwise yellow.

Head wider (0.72 mm) than long (0.34 mm); clypeus (0.18 mm) slightly smaller than distance between outer rim of toruli (0.20 mm); antennal scrobe with transverse, v-shaped, sinuate costae; clypeus, malar space, areas surrounding scrobe coriaceous, setose; eyes with IOS:EH = 0.46:0.40, LOL:POL:OOL = 0.04:0.09:0.18; OD = 0.07; frons, vertex and upper third of gena coriaceous throughout; upper mid half of gena with scattered faint sinuate impressions, remainder of gena smooth except for few scattered setigerous punctures; occipital carina simple dorsally, without sculpture, laterally with small dense crenulation; postgena smooth except for sparse punctate sculpture associated with golden setae; mandible tridentate, broad basally, with setigerous punctures at mid longitudinal area, dorsal tooth very small, round, remaining teeth well defined, acute; radicle short; A1 when antenna flexed reaching top of vertex but not surpassing it; antennal clava elongate, thick; antennal segments in the following proportion of length to width, A1= 0.50:0.12, A2 = 0.18:0.09, A3 = 0.11:0.09, A4 = 0.07:0.10, A5 = 0.07:0.12, A6 = 0.12:0.13, A7 = 0.09:0.15, A8 = 0.10:0.15, A9 = 0.09:0.15, A10 = 0.08:0.13, A11=0.10:0.13, A12=0.15:0.10.

Mesosoma longer (1.03 mm) than wide (0.84 mm); pronotum, cervical pronotal area, posterior half of lateral pronotal areas weakly coriaceous, remainder of pronotal lateral areas mostly smooth except for sparse weak longitudinal costae; pronotal shoulders coriaceous; mesoscutum wider (0.78 mm) than long (0.50 mm), covered with golden semi-erect setae and coriaceous sculpture throughout, ratio of length of anterior to posterior margin of median lobe 0.46:0.22; notaulus straight, very narrow, with few transverse ridges that do not reach upper edge at mid third of its length, otherwise without crenulations; transscutal articulation with large, well demarked foveae delineating anterior edge of mesoscutellum with series of semi-round notches; mesoscutellum wider (0.57 mm) than long (0.43 mm), without broad teeth at mid anterior area, posterior edge with dense, deep crenulations, scattered setigerous punctures at anterior and lateral edges mixed with very faint coarse sculpture, mid area smooth except for sparse shallow punctate sculpture; metanotum and metascutellum with large foveae throughout; metascutellum not conspicuously projecting backwards medially; propodeum dorsally with longitudinal rugulae which sometimes do not reach posterior propodeal edge, lateral area with weak rugose sculpture; posterolateral corners not conspicuously prominent, slightly rounded, nucha well developed; upper mesopleural depression with coarse transverse costate sculpture, otherwise smooth, mesepisternum below femoral depression weakly rugulose; dorsal metapleural area weakly rugulose, ventral metapleural area separated by longitudinal carina, foveate.

Fore wing slightly infuscate throughout, similar to N. nervalis , but the pigmented untracheated veins 2Rs, M, and Cu nearly reaching distal margin of fore wing; all veins nebulous and infuscate except for R, C+R, rrs; r-rs not as darkly infuscate as other veins; M arising from base of wing. Hind wing: slightly infuscate, not as dark as fore wing, venation as in N. storeyi .

Metasoma longer (1.12 mm) than wide (0.87 mm); T1 wider (0.78 mm) than long (0.32 mm), with dense setae laterally, mid anterior half with smooth longitudinal depression, remainder of tergite with welldeveloped cristate sculpture; T2 wider (0.54 mm) than long (0.78 mm), with well-developed longitudinal costae of approximately the same length throughout anterior three-fourths of its length, sculpture becoming finer posteriorly, lateral areas setose, posterior one-third with few setae at mid-lateral areas; T3–T6 strongly transverse, combined length (0.37 mm) less than length of T2 (0.54 mm); T3 sparsely setose, with two rows of setigerous punctures; T4–T6 with progressively denser, shorter setae towards T6; T7 subtriangular, with 2

9. http://www.morphbank.net/?id=474169 long setae at anterior lateral areas that reach anteriorly to mid length of T4; S1 with few well-developed longitudinal carinae; S2 with longitudinal costate sculpture which becomes less cristate towards lateral and posterior areas of sternite, longitudinal sculpture extending through four-fifths of length of sternite, anterior edge with pronounced punctures; remainder of metasomal sterna with dense setigerous punctures, without longitudinal carinae.

Male: unknown.

Diagnosis. This is the only species with the combination of longitudinal costae on T2 that are equal in length (Fig. 16) and the vertex, mesoscutum and mesoscutellum with fine coriaceous sculpture and fine scattered punctures (Fig. 18). This species is very similar to N. doddi but can be distinguished from it by the equally long costae on T2, the sparse punctate sculpture on the vertex, the lack of sculpture at the upper mid section of the occipital carina, as well as the lack of coarse punctures on the mesoscutum. Similarly, N. lagunai may be distinguished from N. noyesi in that the vertex and frons are predominantly smooth (Fig. 2), whereas in N. lagunai the vertex is coarsely sculptured.

Etymology: This species is dedicated to the memory of Reinaldo José Laguna Miranda, a close friend of AAV and Jessica Antonia Díaz: “¡vamos pa’la alegria!”

Link to Distribution Map. 10

Comments: The holotype was collected while sweeping next to the edge of closed wet forest facing the arboretum at the Crommellin Biological Station, Pearl Beach, NSW. This area comprised low vegetation and fallen branches. We also have a second female specimen (OSUC 261686, deposited in CNCI), collected at Garradunga in Far North Queensland, a distance of over 2000 km from the type locality. The T2 sculpture is very similar in the two specimens, with extensive long subequal longitudinal costae and a narrow smooth transverse strip. However, the two differ in the structure of the propodeum, the distance between the lateral and median ocelli, the shape of the metascutellum, and the sculpture of the mesoscutellum. In view of these differences, the great distance between the two collecting localities, and the minimal number of specimens available we prefer not to formally assign the Queensland specimen to any species until more material is available to assess intra and/or interspecific differences.

Material Examined. Holotype female: AUSTRALIA: New South Wales, Pearl Beach, 50 km N Sydney, Crommellin Biological Field Station, 18–24.II.2008, at edge of forest, 33.5511ºS 151.2978ºE, A. Austin, S. Thompson, A. Valerio ( OSUC 239227). Deposited at AMS.