Apanteles bulbus Liu & Chen, 2020

Liu, Zhen, He, Jun-Hua, Chen, Xue-Xin & Gupta, Ankita, 2020, The ater-group of the genus Apanteles Foerster (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from China with the descriptions of forty-eight new species, Zootaxa 4807 (1), pp. 1-205 : 47-49

Apanteles bulbus Liu & Chen , sp. nov.

( Figures 19 , 99 )

Description. Holotype. Female. Body length 3.6 mm, fore wing length 4.2 mm.

Head. Transverse in dorsal view, hardly 2.0× as wide as long, 0.9× as wide as mesoscutum. Vertex between eye and posterior ocellus shiny, smooth, and with minute, indistinct punctures. Temple slightly shiny, indefinitely punctate, with fine aciculation at the bottom, strongly constricted. Face 0.8× as high as wide, slightly shiny, smooth, and impunctate, pubescent, inner margin of parallel-sided. Ocelli rather large, posterior tangent to anterior ocellus indistinctly transecting posterior ocelli, distance between fore and hind ocellus much shorter than diameter of hind ocellus, POL:OD:OOL=4.9:3.0:5.0, a dark line reaching out from hind of fore ocellus to occiput. Antenna distinctly shorter than body length, not shrunken apically, loosely articulated, last 3–4 flagellomeres moniliform, penultimate flagellomere cubic.

Mesosoma. Length:width:height = 69.0:40.0:49.0. Disc of mesonotum slightly shiny, with small, dense punctures tending to be coarser and confluent along notaulic courses, at posterior part it confluent to be fine longitudinal striations, interspaces not larger than diameter of puncture. Scutellar sulcus nearly straight, relatively narrow with dense carinae inside. Scutellum shiny, smooth, except for some indefinite punctures laterally, median length distinctly longer than basal width. Lateral polished field of scutellum reaching over half length of scutellum. Propodeum shiny and smooth entirely with much strong carinae, areolation and costulae strongly, well defined. Mesopleuron shiny, anterior part with discrete, dense punctures weakly rugulose under ala.

Legs. Hind femur 3.2× longer than wide. Hind coxa shiny and smooth, save for some small, shallow punctures above (basally). Spines on outer side of third tibia relative dense. Inner spurs of hind tibia fully half length of hind basitarsus, outer spur 1/4. Basitarsus of hind leg slightly longer than tarsomeres 2–4 combined (28.0:25.0), claws of normal size.

Wings. Pterostigma 2.6× as long as its widest part. Vein 1-R1 1.5× longer than pterostigma, 5.6× as long as its distance from apex of marginal cell. Vein r arising from middle of pterostigma, nearly perpendicular to the latter, 1.3× as long as width of pterostigma, r 2.7× longer than 2-SR, indistinctly angled at junction, 2-M half length of 2-SR, 2-SR+M almost as long as 1-SR and slightly shorter than 2-SR, cu-a nearly 1.7× longer than 2-SR+M. First discal cell of fore wing weakly wider than high. Second submarginal cell of hind wing as wide as high. Vein cu-a slightly curved. Hind wing broad, length of 1-M distinctly shorter than distance between its distal extremity and apex of vannal lobe, and vannal lobe beyond its widest concave and without setae.

Metasoma. Almost as long as mesosoma (71.0:69.0). T1 nearly parallel-sided, 2.3× longer than hind width, concave at basal third, turned-over part 1.5× longer than wide, slightly shiny and strongly rugose, longitudinal trough narrow, not deep, apical tubercle shiny and polished. T2 shiny and smooth, except for a row of indistinct punctures apically, narrow, 3.0× wider than long in the middle, nearly straight apically. T3 2.2× longer than T2. Tergites posterior to T2 slightly shiny, smooth, pubescent. Hypopygium much longer than apex of metasoma. Ovipositor sheath 1.5× longer than length of hind tibia, thin. Ovipositor relatively thin, nearly straight, without apical attenuation.

Colour. Reddish brown. Tegula dingy yellow. Palpi honey yellow and spurs pale yellowish. Antenna and ovipositor sheath reddish yellow. Labrum and mandible light reddish brown. Legs mostly honey yellow, except all coxae light reddish brown, most part of hind femur, apical third of hind tibia, and most part of hind tarsus reddish or brownish. Wing membrane hyaline, C+SC+R, 1-R1, pterostigma, r, 2-SR and 2-M honey yellow, the rest more or less pale yellowish.

Male. Unknown.

Material examined. Holotype: 1♀, Mt. Mogan , Zhejiang, 1992.VI, Chen Xuexin, No. 923151.

Distribution. China (Zhejiang).

Etymology. The specific name “ bulbus ” derives from the Latin, referring to the ocelli rather large, bulb-like.

Remarks. This species is similar to A. amotus Liu & Chen , sp. nov., but differs in the following: face impunctate (densely and coarsely punctate in latter); penultimate flagellomere cubic (1.6× longer than wide in latter); and head less transverse (more transverse in latter).

Figures

FIGURE 19. Apanteles bulbus Liu & Chen, sp. nov. Holotype, a. habitus, lateral view; b. propodeum; c. head, dorsal view; d. fore wing; e. head, frontal view; f. mesopleuron; g. mesonotum and scutellum, dorsal view; h. hind wing; i. metasoma, dorsal view. Scale line = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 99. 17–32: Distribution map of ater-group of the genus Apanteles Foerster, 1862. 17: A. brevitempus Liu & Chen, sp. nov.; 18: A. brunnistigma Abdinbekova, 1969; 19: A. bulbus Liu & Chen, sp. nov.; 20: A. cannabis Liu & Chen, sp. nov.; 21: A. carpatus (Say, 1836); 22: A. carssus Liu & Chen, sp. nov.; 23: A. cerberus Nixon, 1965; 24: A. changhingensis Chu, 1937; 25: A. chloris Nixon, 1965; 26: A. clita Nixon, 1965; 27: A. cocotis Wilkinson, 1934; 28: A. crassus Liu & Chen, sp. nov.; 29: A. cyprioides Nixon, 1965; 30: A. cypris Nixon, 1965; 31: A. demades Nixon, 1965; 32: A. diocles Nixon, 1965.