Venturia aquila, Vas, 2019

Vas, Zoltán, 2019, Contributions to the taxonomy, identification, and biogeography of Casinaria Holmgren and Venturia Schrottky (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae), Zootaxa 4664 (3), pp. 351-364 : 358-360

Venturia aquila sp. nov.

Material examined. Holotype: female, Ghana, Bagjamze, 100 km SW from Tamale, 8.I.1969, leg. Entz B.; specimen pinned, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 153860 .— The holotype specimen is deposited in the Hymenoptera Collection of HNHM (Budapest, Hungary).

Diagnosis. Venturia aquila sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from all other Afrotropical Venturia species by the colouration of metasoma (third and following tergites blackish to dark brown, apical two tergites laterally dark reddish brown) and the slender legs with hind femur blackish and hind tibia dark brown, except from V. magrettii (Kriechbaumer) which species has somewhat similar though distinctly lighter, more reddish brown metasoma and distinctly lighter, reddish brown hind femur and tibia. Besides these differences, the new species can be distinguished from V. magrettii by its weak, partly obsolescent propodeal carinae, by its slenderer body (combined length of first and second tergites is about as long as combined length of mesosoma and head), by its slenderer first flagellomere (little more than 3× as long as wide apically), and by its predominantly dark brown to almost entirely black coxae (in V. magrettii propodeal carinae are very strongly developed, combined length of first and second tergites is about 0.7× as long as combined length of mesosoma and head, first flagellomere 2.5× as long as wide apically, and its fore and middle coxae are reddish yellow).

Description. Female ( Fig. 7 ). Body length ca 9.5 mm, fore wing length ca 5 mm.

Head: Antenna with 36 flagellomeres; first flagellomere ca 3× as long as wide apically; preapical flagellomeres longer than wide. Head transverse, coarsely granulate with dense punctures, and with rather long and dense greyish hairs. Ocular-ocellar distance about as long as ocellus diameter, posterior ocellar distance ca 2× as long as ocellus diameter. Inner eye orbits slightly indented and weakly convergent ventrally. Gena (temple) short, strongly narrowed behind eye, in dorsal view about 0.4× as long as eye width; punctures on gena weaker than on other parts of the head. Occipital carina complete, reaching hypostomal carina little before mandibular base; hypostomal carina normal, not elevated. Malar space short, about 0.5× as long as basal width of mandible. Face and clypeus almost flat in profile, very weakly separated. Clypeus relatively wide, apical margin weakly convex. Lower margin of mandible with narrow flange from middle toward base, lower mandibular tooth little longer than upper tooth.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma coarsely to finely granulate with dense, strong punctures, and with dense, relatively long, greyish hairs. Pronotum with weak transverse wrinkles almost along its entire length. Mesoscutum convex in profile, slightly longer than wide, notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove deep. Scutellum convex in profile, without lateral carina. Mesopleuron with transverse wrinkles anterior to speculum, speculum smooth. Pleural and ventral part of epicnemial carina complete, strong; transversal part (i.e. part at the level of sternaulus running through the epicnemium to the ventral edge of pronotum) absent; pleural part obliquely bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it below its middle height; ventral part of epicnemial carina not elevated. Sternaulus indistinct. Posterior transverse carina of mesosternum complete. Metanotum about 0.5× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron without distinct juxtacoxal carina; submetapleural carina complete, strong. Pleural carina of propodeum strong; propodeal spiracle small, oval, separated from pleural carina by less than its length. Propodeum almost entirely covered with transverse wrinkles, long, its apex reaching behind middle length of hind coxa, but not reaching apex of hind coxa. Propodeal carinae rather weak, lateromedian longitudinal carinae partly obsolescent. Area basalis very short and small, almost negligible. Area superomedia granulate with transverse wrinkles and without distinct punctures, ca 2× as long as wide, lateral carinae convergent apically; area superomedia apically opened, confluent with area petiolaris. Costula (section of anterior transverse carina between lateromedian and lateral longitudinal carinae) weak, distinctly before middle of area superomedia. Area petiolaris with transverse wrinkles. Fore wing with relatively small, petiolate areolet, second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) distal to its middle, posterior third of 3 rs-m weakly curved toward M; distal abscissa of Rs straight; distal abscissa of M weakly pigmented; nervulus (cu-a) interstitial, and very weakly inclivous, posterior third slightly curved inward; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted little above its middle by Cu 1a; lower external angle of second discal cell acute. Pterostigma long and narrow. Hind wing with nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a weakly inclivous, intercepted at about lower 0.35× of its length; discoidella (distal abscissa of Cu 1) connected to nervellus, spectral. Coxae finely granulate with weak punctures. Legs rather long and slender, hind femur, ca 6× as long as high. Inner spur of hind tibia longer than outer spur, inner spur ca 0.5× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Tarsal claws slightly longer than arolium, with few strong basal pecten.

Metasoma: Metasoma compressed with relatively dense, short, greyish hairs. First tergite very long and slender, ca 5× as long as its apical width, without glymma; dorsomedian carina of first tergite indistinct; petiolus smooth, postpetiolus finely granulate; petiolus more than 4× as long as high. Suture separating first tergite from first sternite situated mid-height at basal third of first metasomal segment. Second tergite granulate, long and slender, 0.8× as long as first tergite, 2.4× as long as its apical width; thyridium oval, small, its distance from basal margin of tergite more than 4× as long as its length. Third tergite almost 1.5× as long as its apical width, third and following tergites finely granulate to finely shagreened. Posterior margin of sixth and seventh tergites medially concave, distinctly excised. Ovipositor sheath 1.4–1.5× as long as hind tibia, ovipositor shaft weakly upcurved, dorsal preapical notch deep, tip acute.

Colour: Antenna brown, ventrally reddish brown, scapus ventrally yellowish. Head black except palpi light yellowish, mandibles yellow, mandibular teeth reddish brown. Mesosoma black except tegula pale yellow. Metasoma: first and second tergites black, third and following tergites blackish to dark brown, apical two tergites laterally dark reddish brown; ovipositor sheath dark brown. Wings hyaline, wing veins and pterostigma brown. Fore leg: coxa predominantly dark brown to brown, apically extensively yellowish; trochanter and trochantellus whitish yellow; femur reddish; tibia and tarsus yellowish, apical tarsomere darkened. Middle leg: coxa blackish, apically narrowly yellowish brown; trochanter brown, partly yellowish; trochantellus whitish yellow; femur dark reddish brown, basally and ventrally darkened; tibia yellowish brown, dorsally yellowish; tarsus yellowish brown, apical tarsomere darkened. Hind leg: coxa black, apically narrowly yellowish; trochanter dark brown, apically narrowly yellowish; trochantellus brownish, partly yellowish; femur blackish, extreme basal and apical parts narrowly yellowish; tibia dark brown, extreme basal part dorsally with a small yellowish brown spot; tarsus brown.

Male: Unknown.

Distribution. Currently known from Ghana.

Ecology. No host is known; might be a koinobiont endoparasitoid of lepidopterous hosts, similarly to most Venturia species with known hosts.

Etymology. The specific epithet aquila is the feminine form of the Latin adjective aquilus, -a, -um meaning dark brown, dark coloured, swarthy; it refers to the extensive dark brownish colouration of the new species.

Remarks. Among the currently known Afrotropical species V. aquila sp. nov. (described here by female sex from Ghana) seems to be most closely related to V. magrettii , a species described and known only by male sex from Ethiopia. However, considering the sufficient morphological differences between the type specimens of these species in sculpture, body proportions and colouration (see Diagnosis), it is not grounded to assume that they would represent the female and male sexes of the same species.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Venturia aquila sp. nov., female, holotype.