Teresirogas australicolorus Quicke & Shaw

Quicke, Donald L. J., Shaw, Mark R., Achterberg, Cornelis Van, Bland, Keith P., Butcher, Buntika A., Lyszkowski, Richard & Zhang, Y. Miles, 2014, A new Australian genus and five new species of Rogadinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), one reared as a gregarious endoparasitoid of an unidentified limacodid (Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 3881 (3), pp. 237-257 : 241-245

Teresirogas australicolorus Quicke & Shaw sp. nov.

(Figs 2–4)

Holotype ♀, “ AUSTRALIA, N[ew] S[outh] W[ales] Murrumbateman 35º08’S 149º02’E 22.ix.2013 K.P. Bland.”; “Brood of 9 (6 ♀, 2 ♂ sexable) ex indet. limacodid mummy in cocoon coll. under loose Eucalyptus bark, em. end xii.2013 ” ( ANIC).

Paratypes: AUSTRALIA: 4 ♀, 2 ♂, same data as holotype ( NMS); 1 ♀, Australia, New South Wales, Tahmoor, nr. Picton, 22.i.1966, M. I. Nikitin ( BMNH).

Female. Body length 7.2 mm, fore wing length 6.7 mm.

Antenna with 57, 58, 58 (♀) and 52 (♂) flagellomeres. Head 2.2–2.4 x wider than face. Face largely coriaceous, with dense, deep setiferous puncturation laterally, the punctures coalescing to form sub-striate-rugulose sculpture rather obscuring malar suture. Mesosoma 1.6 x longer than maximally high. Notauli almost entirely smooth, without punctures or crenulae.

Coloration. Flagellum black; head, scapus and pedicellus orange except stemmaticum black; mesosoma black except scutellum (partly), metanotum and propodeum (largely orange) and legs black except fore tarsus, tibia and apical half of its femur orange; wings brown with dark brown venation but pterostigma largely yellowish; metasomal tergites 1 and 2 mostly white but with a pair of diffuse blackish spots near anterior of 1st tergite in holotype series, tergite 3 onwards black; metasomal sternites membranous with black spots.

Male like female, but maxillary palp with segments 3–5 greatly cylindrically swollen (Fig. 2D).

Etymology. The name alludes to the colour pattern being typical of many of the larger Australian braconids belonging to several subfamilies, and indeed to various other insects of Australia and adjacent areas.

Biology. The squat mummy of the holotype series contained nine distinct adpressed cells aligned to the host’s longitudinal axis. Emergence was, or would have been, towards the anterior end of the host in all but one case (1♀, died partly uneclosed, visible in Fig. 4 C). In fact only 3♀ and 1♂ had eclosed successfully; a further 2♀ and 1♂ were extracted from the mummy as fully formed dead adults, though in variable condition. Another ♀, a pharate adult (i.e. still in its pupal cuticle, with wings unexpanded) in largely mouldy condition, was sexed from its maxillary palpi, and a further individual was represented by a completely mouldy pupa which could not be sexed; neither of these two is included as paratype.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Teresirogas australicolorus gen. et. sp. nov. A, hind leg and middle and hind claws showing pointed basal lobes; B, wings; C, mummified prepupal host remains, note incompletely emerged wasp, upper right.