Glyptapanteles wrightae 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 : 109-112

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

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:569C2146-14FF-4453-BA4E-A6A8787A044A

Fig. 53

Diagnosis

Glyptapanteles wrightae sp. nov. can be separated from the other members of the arcanus species group as follows:

Glyptapanteles wrightae 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 wrightae 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 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 wrightae sp. nov. can be separated from G. doreyi sp. nov. by the tegula being 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. wrightae sp. nov. from G. lessardi sp. nov. and 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 Susan Wright, who collected the holotype specimen. EPF-J would like to acknowledge Susan’s support of visiting researchers at the QM and her continual generosity with her time and advice.

Material examined

Holotype AUSTRALIA • ♀; Queensland, Samsonvale Cemetery , 8.5 km SSE of Dayboro; -27.2703, 152.856; 50 m a.s.l.; 6 Jan.–8 Feb. 2015; S. Wright leg.; Casuarina /open forest Malaise trap; Extraction198, BOLD: AUMIC084-18; QM T208400 .

Paratypes AUSTRALIA – New South Wales • 1 ♂; Royal National Park, near Waterfall Couranga Track near Hacking River; -34.1486, 151.0221; 40 m a.s.l.; 20 Jan.–6 Feb. 2020; K.M. Bayless and J.G. Lumbers leg.; 6 m Malaise trap over Waterfall Creek; Extraction857, BOLD: AUGLY128-21; ANIC 32 130373 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; Extraction863, BOLD: AUGLY010-21; ANIC 32 130374 .

Description

Female

COLOURATION. Gena without a pale spot; labrum reddish-brown; scape colour in ventral half uniformly paler than flagellomeres; flagellomeres darkening distally; tegula pale; wing veins uniformly black or brown, or with small lighter area proximally; anteromesoscutum all dark; scutellar disk and metanotum dark; propodeum dark; fore coxa white; mid coxa white; 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; T2 sclerotised area dark reddish-brown; T2 lateral area dark extends past indentation, but then pale; T3 mostly dark with paler lateral areas; T4+ reddish-brown.

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

HEAD. Antennal flagellomere 14 length/width 3.5; antennal flagellomere 2 length/width 2.71; OOD/ POD 1.83; IOD/POD 1.67.

MESOSOMA. Anteromesoscutum sculpturing with deep punctures, space between punctures a mixture of smaller than diameter of punctures and of similar size; scutellar disk sculpturing with deep, sparse, irregularly spaced punctures, more common on anterior lateral edges or scutellar disk with shallow punctures scattered over most of area; eight pits in scutellar sulcus; propodeum with median carina absent, strong punctures in anterior half, rugose sculpturing in posterior half.

WINGS. Pterostigma length 0.49 mm; pterostigma width 0.16 mm; r 0.13 mm; 2RS 0.14 mm; 2m 0.06 mm; (RS+M)b 0.07 mm.

METASOMA. T1 lateral edges parallel for anterior ½ to ⅔ of length, then narrowing posteriorly; T1 mostly smooth, some punctures in posterior half, smooth and shiny, sometimes with some shallow scattered punctures on lateral edges; T1 length 0.25 mm; T1 width at posterior edge 0.08 mm; T2 an isosceles trapezoid, lateral edges straight; T2 smooth and shiny; T2 length 0.14 mm; T2 width at posterior edge 0.19 mm; ovipositor slightly protruding from end of metasoma.

Male

As female.

Remarks

Glyptapanteles wrightae sp. nov. constitutes BIN BOLD:ADL3293 and is 1.76% (p-dist.) divergent from the closet BIN in the database (BOLD:AEI5416; see information below about the specimens within this BIN).

Using the BOLD Batch ID engine, the COI sequence of the holotype is 1.7% different from the most similar COI sequence from an Australian specimen (AUGLY139-21, an undescribed lineage, with three sequences). This closely related lineage, (BOLD:AEI5416; also including BOLD AUGLY135-21 and AUGLY130-21) requires further study to determine whether it is within the species limits of G. wrightae sp. nov. or whether it represents a distinct species.

Distribution

This species is currently known from southern QLD and north-eastern NSW.

Figures

Fig. 53. Glyptapanteles wrightae Fagan-Jeffries, Bird & Austin sp. nov., holotype, ♀ (QM T208400). A. Dorsal head. B. Fore wing. C. Lateral habitus. D. Dorsal habitus. E. Anterior head. F. Lateral head.