Syntretus curvatus Gupta, van Achterberg & Pattar, 2023

Gupta, Ankita, Achterberg, Cornelis Van, Pattar, Rohit & Kumar, Hemanth, 2023, First report of two braconid genera Syntretus Foerster and Xynobius Foerster from India with description of one new species, Zootaxa 5319 (4), pp. 582-588 : 583

Syntretus curvatus Gupta, van Achterberg & Pattar , sp. nov.

( Figs 1–2 )

Type material. Holotype. Female on card; India: Karnataka: Bengaluru ; sweep net; 18.vi.2021; coll. R. Prajwal; code—NIM/ NBAIR /Hym/Brac/Syn/180621-H (NIM) . Paratype: one female on card; same data as holotype; code—NIM/ NBAIR /Hym/Brac/Syn/180621-P1 .

Holotype. Body length 3.7 mm; antenna 23 antennomeres; fore wing 2.6 mm long (1.0 mm wide).

Colour: Body brownish yellow, except for black eyes and ovipositor sheath; ocelli, apex of mandibles, lateral sides of mesoscutum and metanotum reddish brown; antenna light brown, except with yellowish scape and pedicel, pterostigma light yellow with darker margins and yellowish brown veins.

Head: Width of head in dorsal view 1.7 × its length; antennal segments 23, antenna 0.6 × length of body, length of first flagellomere 0.9–1.1 × second flagellomere, length of first, second, third and penultimate flagellomeres 1.6, 1.5, 1.4 and 2.1 × their width, respectively; OOL: OD: POL (relative) = 2.8: 1: 1.9; length of eye in dorsal view 1.5 × temple; temple roundly narrowed behind eyes; temple and vertex smooth, glabrous; face with a distinct medio-longitudinal groove; nearly smooth, sparsely setose, inter-tentorial line 1.3 × tentorio-ocular line; clypeus convex, medially straight, nearly smooth, its width 3.5 × its height; clypeus narrower than face; length of malar space 2.5 × basal width of mandible.

Mesosoma: Length of mesosoma 1.4 × its height; pronotum dorsally crenulate; mesopleuron largely smooth except for few oblique rugae slightly below its centre; notauli shallowly impressed anteriorly; mesoscutum and scutellum smooth, glabrous; propodeum with medio-longitudinal groove and few median transverse carinae in basal one third, remaining part reticulate-rugose.

Wings: Fore wing subhyaline and 2.6 × longer than wide; pterostigma 2.4 × as long as wide; length of vein 1- R 1 0.6 × length of pterostigma; vein 3-SR+SR1 6.0–6.4 × longer than r; r issued from middle of pterostigma, 0.4 × width of pterostigma; vein 3-SR+SR1 curved, ending before apex; r:2-SR:SR1+3-SR (relative) = 1:2.6:5.9; l-CU1:2-CU1= 1:4.8; 2-1A absent. Hind wing: vein 1-SC+ R of hind wing unsclerotised or absent (as most other veins; Fig. 2H ).

Legs: Hind coxa nearly smooth; length of hind femur, tibia and basitarsus 4.1, 9.6 and 9.4 × their width, respectively; length of hind tibial spurs 0.30 and 0.28 × hind basitarsus.

Metasoma: Length of first tergite 3.6 × its apical width, first tergite slender and smooth, basally, medially and apically slightly widened, ratio of maximum width to minimum width is 2.7 and laterope absent; following tergites smooth; second tergite compressed and with dorsal fold ( Fig. 2G ); ovipositor sheath slightly protruding beyond apex of metasoma and 0.3 × as long as first tergite; apical half of ovipositor narrow and decurved.

Etymology: Named after the decurved ovipositor, “curvus” is Latin for bent.

Comments: This Indian species comes close to S. amoenus Belokobylskij in having reticulate sculpture of the propodeum, the second and third metasomal tergites compressed and in dorsal view their upper part hardly wider than the first tergite, no laterope of the first tergite and veins of the hind wing mainly absent and differs as follows in Table 1 :

Figures

FIGURE 1. Syntretus curvatus sp. nov. A—Female in lateral aspect (holotype); B—Female in lateral aspect (paratype).

FIGURE 2. Syntretuscurvatus sp. nov.A—Head in anterior aspect; B—Vertex;C—Basal segments of antenna; D—Mesosoma; E—Mesopleuron; F—Propodeum; G—Metasoma; H—Wings.