Apanteles (Choeras) infirmicarinatus Song & Chen

Song, Sheng-Nan, He, Jun-Hua & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2014, The subgenus Choeras Mason, 1981 of genus Apanteles Foerster, 1862 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from China, with descriptions of eighteen new species, Zootaxa 3754 (5), pp. 501-554 : 521-523

Apanteles (Choeras) infirmicarinatus Song & Chen , sp. n.

( Figure 8. a–i )

Description. Female. Length of body 3.1 mm, of fore wing 4.0 mm.

Head. 2.1 times as wide as long, equal to the width of mesoscutum. Antenna with 18 segments, longer than the body length, segments with fine and short setae, subapical antennal segments almost cubic, length of 16th segment 0.8 times as long as 15th segment, length of third segment equal to fourth segment, length of third, fourth, 15th, 16th and penultimate segments 2.8, 2.8, 1.1, 1.0 and 1.0 times as long as their width, respectively. In dorsal view length of eye 2.0 times as long as length of temple. Ocellar triangle sparsely setose and matt. Ocelli in a very low triangle, the posterior transverse tangent to the median ocellus cutting into the posterior pair; ocelli big, their diameter longer than the distance between the hind and fore ocellus, slightly closer to each other than to the eyes. OOL: OD: POL = 14: 9: 13. Frons smooth and distinctly concave medially, narrowly punctulate and setose laterally and posteriorly. Temple and vertex largely densely punctulate and pubescent, softly shiny. Face and clypeus punctulate, setose and softly shiny. Face with median longitudinal carina. Labrum shiny, punctulate and sparsely setose. Length of malar space 0.5 times as long as basal width of mandible.

Mesosoma. Side of pronotum slightly rugose, with distinctly narrow ventral furrow and dorsal furrow which with a few longitudinal carinae. Propleuron smooth and shiny. Prepectal carina and precoxal sulcus absent. Mesopleuron distinctly punctulate and setose, but smooth and glabrous medially and postero-dorsally. Mesoscutum finely and densely punctulate, densely setose and softly shiny. Notauli absent. Scutellar sulcus very narrow, with hardly visible crenulation, its width about equal to length of scutellum. Scutellum convex medio-posteriorly, sparsely punctulate and setose, softly shiny. Side of scutellum with narrow crenulate depression, even linear, lunula large-sized and semicircular. Propodeum with rugose median band, with a complete and indistinct median longitudinal carina, anteriorly punctulate and setose, remainder part of propodeum rugose.

Wings. Fore wing evenly covered with brown hairs, denser towards the apex. Pterostigma relatively wide, 2.8 times as long as wide. Vein 1-R1 1.6 times as long as pterostigma and about 14 times as long as the distance from it to the top of marginal cell. Vein r slightly curved and 1.2 times as long as 2-SR, vein r arising beyond the middle of pterostigma and longer than breadth of pterostigma. Vein 2-SR straight. Vein r-m of fore wing completely absent, areolet absent. 1-CU1: 2-CU1= 8: 11. Vein 1-SR pointing to 2-CU1. Hind wing evenly covered with lightly brown hairs, setose. Vein cu-a straight. Edge of vannal lobe beyond its widest part straight and here without a fringe of hairs.

Legs. Hind coxa densely punctulate dorsally and laterally, but sparsely punctulate ventrally. Length of hind coxa longer than half of thorax. Tarsal claws slender and setose, but at the base with some bristles. Longer spur of middle tibia not reaching apex of middle basitarsus. Length of femur, tibia and basitarsus of hind leg 3.0, 5.6 and 5.3 times as long as their width, respectively. Length of hind tibial spurs 0.6 and 0.3 times as long as hind basitarsus respectively. Hind femur moderately densely punctulate and setose.

Metasoma. Tergite I subtriangular, strongly narrowed apically, its basal width about 2.2 times as long as apical width which is 1.4 times as long as median length of tergite II, lateral sides more or less straight and slightly concave apically, basal half with a relatively wide and shallow excavation which is smooth and shiny, the remainder sparsely setose and punctulate. Tergite II transverse subtriangular, apical side curved which is 3.0, 4.0 times as long as basal width and its length respectively; smooth and mat which has a sparse row of hairs on the posterior margin. Remaining tergites smooth, mat and setose. Ovipositor sheath hairy and narrowed, lateral sides nearly parallel but small part of apical sharply narrowed, length of it (total length) 1.1 times as long as hind tibia. Hypopygium largely sclerotized, membranous only near median line and with a distinctly longitudinal folds, with widely longitudinal creases laterally, acute apically.

Colour. Head black. Mandible yellowish brown. Clypeus black brown. Scape and pedicel brown. Flagellum dark brown. Mesosoma black. Wing membrane subhyalineand weakly brown, pterostigma and veins pale brown. Fore and middle legs yellow except apical tarsi and basal-dorsally coxa black. Hind coxa black basally half and yellow apically. Hind trochanter and basal part of hind femur yellow. Apical part of hind femur and hind tibia yellowish brown. Hind tarsi brown. Tibial spurs yellow. Tergite I dark yellowish brown basally and black brown apically. Remaining tergites black brown. Ovipositor dark brown, its sheath dark brown.

Variation. Body length 2.1–3.1 mm. Fore wing length 2.6–4.0 mm. And some individuals slightly different in colour pattern.

Male. Unknown.

Biology. Unknown.

Material examined. Holotype, ♀, China, Fujian Prov., Meihuashan, Guihe, Baigongao, 1988. VII. 23–24, He Junhua, No. 887447 ( ZJUH). Paratypes (all in ZJUH): 1♀, China, Zhejiang Prov., Qingyuan, Baishanzu, 1993. IX. 6, Wu Hong, No. 945281; 1♀, China, Zhejiang Prov., Qingyuan, Baishanzu, 1994. VII. 20, Wu Hong, No. 946957; 1♀, China, Guangdong Prov., Yunan, Tongledashan, 2003. VIII. 12–13, Xu Zaifu, No. 20054686; 1♀, China, Guangdong Prov., Shixing Chebaling, 2002. VII. 27, Xu Zaifu, 20051703.

Distribution. China (Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong) ( Fig. 21 ).

Remark. The new species is similar to Apanteles (Choeras) parabolus ( Kotenko, 2007) , but can be distinguished by the length of ovipositor sheath (total length) slightly longer than hind tibia (the latter 0.7 times); the vein r slightly curved (the latter straight); and the hypopygium largely sclerotized, only near median line membranous and with a distinct longitudinal folds, with laterally and widely longitudinal creases (the latter more sclerotized, without longitudinal folds along the bottom edge).

Etymology. The specific name “ infirmicarinatus ” derives from the Latin adjective “infirma” and adjective “carinatus”, referring to the propodeum with an indistinct median longitudinal carina.

Figures

FIGURE 21. Distribution map of Choeras species in China II. ●: Apanteles (Choeras) flavicorpus Song & Chen, sp. n.; ■: Apanteles (Choeras) fujianensis Song & Chen, sp. n.; ▲: Apanteles (Choeras) grammatitergitus Song & Chen, sp. n.; Δ: Apanteles (Choeras) infirmicarinatus Song & Chen, sp. n.; ┼: Apanteles (Choeras) longitergitus Song & Chen, sp. n.; ○: Apanteles (Choeras) longus Song & Chen, sp. n..

FIGURE 8. a – i. Apanteles (Choeras) infirmicarinatus Song & Chen, sp. n. a, habitus, dorsal view; b, antennae; c, fore and hind wing; d, head, dorsal view; e, head, frontal view; f, mesosoma, dorsal view; g, T 1 – T 3, dorsal view; h, metasoma, lateral view; i, mesosoma, lateral view.