Pristomerus teke, Rousse & Noort, 2015

Rousse, Pascal & Noort, Simon van, 2015, Revision of the Afrotropical species of Pristomerus (Ichneumonidae: Cremastinae), with descriptions of 31 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 124, pp. 1-129 : 99-101

Pristomerus teke sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E5956D87-2231-4D49-B9C0-8D5BD00A8EA5

Fig. 37

Diagnosis

Moderately small;mostly black with lighter yellow to orange parts on head, legs and metasoma; trochanters and apex of femora white-dotted; face deeply and densely punctate; clypeus strongly transverse with punctation sparser ventrally; malar line moderately long; remainder of head coriaceous; ocelli unusually enlarged; antenna with 30 flagellomeres, penultimate one obviously elongate; mesosoma distinctly elongate, mostly deeply and densely punctate, except scutellum coriaceous, pronotum postero-dorsally and speculum ventrally smoother; scutellum quite flat; propodeum coarsely punctate to rugose with area superomedia strongly elongate; femoral tooth moderate; ovipositor short, slightly sinuous apically. Male unknown.

Differential diagnosis

Rather small and mostly black; readily differentiated among Afrotropical Pristomerus by the flat and coriaceous scutellum and the elongate penultimate flagellomere. Also characterized by the combination of the colour pattern, the elongate mesosoma, the moderate female femoral tooth, the short ovipositor, and the enlarged ocelli in females. It might be related to P. aka sp. nov., the latter having a mostly coriaceous mesoscutum, a punctate scutellum, and the ocelli not enlarged. Pristomerus teke sp. nov. is also strongly morphologically similar to P. mbaka sp. nov., the latter having a shorter and apically straight ovipositor, and not having the elongate mesosoma nor the flat scutellum of P. teke sp. nov..

Type material

Holotype

GABON: ♀, “ GABON. Prov. Ogooué-Maritime, Réserve de la Moukalaba-Dougoua, 12.2 Km 305°NW Doussala, 2°17.00’S 10°29.83’E, 110m, 26.ii.2000, S. van Noort, Sweep, GA00–S09, lowland rainforest, elephant path, SAM–HYM–P041663” ( SAMC).

Description

Female (holotype)

B 5.9; A 3.9; F 4.2; CT 2.1; ML 0.6; POL 0.4; OOL 0.6; Fl n-1 1.5; ASM 2.5; OT 1.4; FFT 1.

COLOUR. Head mostly black with clypeus, malar space, mandible, frontal and temporal orbits yellow to orange; mesosoma black with some lighter orange markings along anterior margin of pronotum and reddish glints on mesopleuron; metasomal tergites black with apical and lateral margins of tergites yellow from tergite 3; fore and mid legs yellow, hind leg darker brown, with apices of all femora and trochanters white-marked; wings hyaline, venation brown with anterior half of pterostigma slightly paler; flagellum and ovipositor sheath dark brown.

HEAD. Face deeply and densely punctate, weakly bulging mid-longitudinally; inner margins of eyes subparallel; punctation smoother on ventral half of clypeus; clypeus strongly transverse; malar line moderately long; frons, vertex and temple coriaceous; ocelli distinctly enlarged, strongly elliptic; occipital carina joining hypostomal carina ventrally shortly above mandible base; antenna with 30 flagellomeres, penultimate one distinctly elongate.

MESOSOMA. Distinctly elongate; pronotum shallowly crenulate anteriorly, with a large smoother posterodorsal area; mesopleuron and metapleuron densely and deeply punctate with a coarsely striate oblique furrow below speculum, speculum ventrally smoother; mesoscutum densely punctate-granulate, punctures confluent along notaulus into fine transverse rugosities; scutellum coriaceous, quite flat; propodeum densely and coarsely punctate, medially transversally rugose, area superomedia long and narrow. Legs. Femoral tooth moderate.

METASOMA. Tergite 2, apical half of tergite 1 and base of tergite 3 longitudinally aciculate; thyridium elliptic, its main axis longitudinal; ovipositor short, slightly sinuous apically.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution

Gabon.

Figures

Fig. 37. Pristomerus teke sp. nov. Holotype, ♀. A. Habitus, lateral view. B. Head, mesosoma, dorsal view. C. Head, anterior view. D. Propodeum, dorsal view. E. Mesosoma, lateral view. F. Hind tibia, lateral view (inset: data labels).