Conidarnes laevis Farache & Rasplus

Farache, Fernando Henrique Antoniolli & Rasplus, Jean-Yves, 2015, Conidarnes, a new oriental genus of Sycophaginae (Hymenoptera, Agaonidae) associated with Ficus section Conosycea (Moraceae), ZooKeys 539, pp. 119-145 : 126-127

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Agaonidae

Conidarnes laevis Farache & Rasplus sp. n. Fig. 6

Holotype.

♀: INDONESIA: E. Kalimantan: Kutai Nature Reserve, 0.37° 117.27°, 5m, 1978, Leighton, ex Ficus kerkhoveni , Wiebes Coll. n° 3950 (RMNH).

Diagnosis.

Head, mesosoma, and metasoma mostly brown. Upper face smooth; lower face reticulate. Mesoscutum and mesoscutellum sculpture mostly smooth. Notauli incomplete. Frenal sulcus smooth. Length of the ovipositor sheaths 1 × body length.

Description.

Female. Size and colour. Body length 1.7 mm. Length of the ovipositor sheaths 1.7 mm. Antennae yellow. Head dark brown, with metallic green lustre, mostly at the lower face. Mesosoma and metasoma brown. Legs proximally brown, tibiae and tarsi yellow.

Head. Scape 3.5 × as long as wide. Antenna with two anelli. Proximal anellus shorter than distal anellus. Funicular segments mostly transverse. Terminal antennomere inconspicuous. Antennae inserted at the lower line of compound eyes. Supraclypeal area shorter than clypeus, or inconspicuous, narrow. Upper face smooth; lower face reticulate. Scrobe without a median longitudinal sulcus.

Mesosoma. Pronotum sculpture mostly smooth, slightly engraved. Pronotum elongated, nearly twice as long as high in lateral view. Mesoscutum and mesoscutellum sculpture mostly smooth. Notauli incomplete. Frenal sulcus smooth. Metascutellum short, inconspicuous. Anterior margin of propodeum smooth. Propodeum sculpture smooth. Propodeum without a median line.

Metasoma. Length of the ovipositor sheaths 1 × body length.

Male. Unknown.

Etymology.

The specific name refers to the smooth body sculpture observed in this species.

Biology.

Reared from syconia of Ficus kerkhovenii Koord. & Valeton.

Note.

This species presents unique characters, such as a smooth body with no sculpture and an elongated mesosoma. These characters are mostly associated to galler fig wasps that enters the syconium through the ostiole ( Cruaud et al. 2011b). Consequently, we speculate that this species may be an ostiolar galler.