Glyptapanteles lessardi Fagan-Jeffries, Bird & Austin, 2022

Fagan-Jeffries, Erinn P., McCLELLAND, Alana R., Bird, Andrew J., Giannotta, Madalene M., Bradford, Tessa M. & Austin, Andrew D., 2022, Systematic revision of the parasitoid wasp genus Glyptapanteles Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae) for Australia results in a ten-fold increase in species, European Journal of Taxonomy 792 (1), pp. 1-116 : 85-86

Glyptapanteles lessardi Fagan-Jeffries, Bird & Austin sp. nov.

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Fig. 43

Diagnosis

Glyptapanteles lessardi sp. nov. is in the G. arcanus species group and can be separated from the other members of the group as follows:

Glyptapanteles lessardi sp. nov. can be separated from G. rodriguezae sp. nov. and G. ruhri sp. nov. by T1 being smooth and shiny, not having punctures that cover at least a third of the area of the posterior half of the tergite.

Glyptapanteles lessardi sp. nov. can be separated from G. goodwinnoakes sp. nov., G. erucadesolator sp. nov., G. lambkinae sp. nov., G. arcanus sp. nov. and G. vergrandiacus sp. nov. by the propodeum being less coarsely (and less consistently), strongly rugose sculptured across the anterior half of the propodeum. Glyptapanteles wrightae sp. nov. has the propodeum with strong punctures in the anterior half, the posterior half with shallow or strong rugose sculpturing.

Glyptapanteles lessardi sp. nov. can be separated from G. doreyi sp. nov. by having the tegula pale in colouration (the tegula in G. doreyi sp. nov. is generally dark in colouration), the hind femur mostly pale or light brown (mostly dark in G. doreyi sp. nov.) and the indentation in the centre of the mesopleuron being smooth, not strongly canaliculated as it is in G. doreyi sp. nov.

There was not a morphological character found that easily separates G. lessardi sp. nov. from G. wrightae sp. nov.; we do not diagnose these species morphologically. The wingless barcodes of the two species differ by 3 bp and the COI is greater than 4% divergent.

Etymology

Named for Dr Bryan Lessard, part of the team who collected the holotype, for his constant endeavour to raise awareness about the importance of taxonomy in the community and his support of other early career researchers.

Material examined

Holotype AUSTRALIA • ♀; Queensland, Blue Tongue Scrub, Steve Irwin Reserve, Cape York ; -12.286584, 142.343274; 42.9 m a.s.l.; 23–26 Jul. 2018; C. Lambkin and B. Lessard leg.; vine thicket rainforest; Extraction888, BOLD: AUGLY015-21; QM T250974 .

Paratype AUSTRALIA • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; Extraction890, BOLD: AUGLY016-21; QM T250975 .

Description

Female

COLOURATION. Gena without a pale spot; labrum mostly dark; scape colour in ventral half uniformly paler than flagellomeres; flagellomeres uniformly reddish-brown; tegula pale; wing veins uniformly black or brown, or with small lighter area proximally; anteromesoscutum dark with significant orange patches on posterolateral corners or dark with very slight orange patches on posterolateral corners; scutellar disk and metanotum dark; propodeum dark; hind coxa dark; fore femur pale yellow; mid femur pale yellow; hind femur pale yellow; fore tibia pale yellow; mid tibia pale yellow; hind tibia darkening posteriorly; hind basitarsus light brown; T1 dark reddish-brown; T2 sclerotised area dark reddish-brown; T2 lateral area dark extends past indentation, but then pale; T3 uniformly brown; T4+ reddish-brown.

HOLOTYPE BODY MEASUREMENTS. Body length 1.9 mm; fore wing length 1.8 mm; antennal length slightly longer than body length.

HEAD. Antennal flagellomere 14 length/width 1.14–1.28; antennal flagellomere 2 length/width 3.00– 3.16; OOD/POD 2.17–2.20; IOD/POD 1.80–1.83.

MESOSOMA. Anteromesoscutum sculpturing with shallow to deep punctures, space between punctures a mixture of smaller than diameter of punctures and of similar size, often smoother in posterior centre; scutellar disk sculpturing with shallow punctures scattered over most of area; seven pits in scutellar sulcus; propodeum with median carina absent and with punctured sculpturing in ‘v’ shape in centre of propodeum, or with shallow sculpturing over most of propodeum other than smoother area in anterior centre.

WINGS. Pterostigma length 0.46 mm; pterostigma width 0.15 mm; r 0.15 mm; 2RS 0.12 mm; 2m 0.09 mm; (RS+M)b 0.05 mm.

METASOMA. T1 lateral edges parallel for anterior ½ to ⅔ of length, then narrowing posteriorly; T1 smooth and shiny; T1 length 0.32 mm; T1 width at posterior edge 0.09 mm; T2 an isosceles trapezoid, lateral edges straight; T2 smooth and shiny; T2 length 0.12 mm; T2 width at posterior edge 0.3 mm; ovipositor slightly protruding from end of metasoma.

Male

Unknown.

Remarks

Glyptapanteles lessardi sp. nov. constitutes BIN BOLD:AEI3823 and is 4.49% (p-dist.) divergent from the closet BIN in the database (BOLD:AEI5416, an undescribed lineage from Australia, possibly part of G. wrightae sp. nov. (see details under G. wrightae sp. nov. Remarks section).

Using the BOLD Batch ID engine, the COI sequence of the holotype is 4.8% different from the most similar COI sequence from an Australian specimen (AUMIC084-18; Glyptapanteles wrightae sp. nov.).

Distribution

Currently known only from a single reserve in Cape York, the most northern region of QLD.

Figures

Fig. 43. Glyptapanteles lessardi Fagan-Jeffries, Bird & Austin sp. nov., paratype, ♀ (QM T250975). A. Lateral habitus. B. Dorsal head. C. Anterior head. D. Lateral head. E. Dorsal habitus. F. Fore wing.