Apenesia sahyadrica, Azevedo & Waichert, 2006

Azevedo, C. O. & Waichert, C., 2006, A new species of Apenesia (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from India, a parasitoid of coffee white stem borer Xylotrechus quadripes (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae), Zootaxa 1174, pp. 63-68 : 64-67

Apenesia sahyadrica sp. nov. Figs. 1–6 .

Description holotype.—Male. Length 6.27 mm; LFW 4.75 mm. Color: head and mesosoma black; metasoma dark castaneous; mandibles and antennae dark castaneous; palpi castaneous; legs castaneous, coxae darker; wings subhyaline.

Head: mandibles with five apical teeth, the lower tooth larger, the others small, and the upper broad. Clypeus with median lobe much projected and rounded, median carina little arched in profile, higher basally, apex forming a small median tooth. Antenna short, first four antennal segments in a ratio of about 30:10:7:10, third segment 1.17 X as long as broad, segment XI 1.28 X; pubescence short and suberect, with some longer erect setae outstanding the pubescence. Eyes glabrous. Frons polished, with numerous small, shallow punctures, widely separated one another. WH 1.07 X LH; WF 0.65 X WH; WF 1.45 X HE; OOL 1.22 X WOT; frontal angle of ocellar triangle acute; posterior ocelli distant from the vertex crest about 1.0 DAO. Vertex convex with rounded corners. VOL 0.61 X HE. Occipital carina not visible in full dorsal view.

Mesosoma: thorax polished, punctuation as on frons. Pronotal disc without anterior carina, much widened posteriorly, shorter than mesoscutum. Notauli complete and well impressed, except anteriorly thin. Parapsidal furrows well impressed, not reaching the anterior margin of mesoscutum. Scutellar disc polished, scutellar groove deep, slightly arched backward. Mesoaxillar pit deep, delimited laterally by strong carina. Metanotum with a pair of deep, rounded pits, connected by a posterior groove. Propodeal disc 1.12 X as wide as long, 1.6 X as wide as high, anterior transverse carina obsolescent medially, without median, lateral and posterior transverse carinae, with large basal triangle extended over more than half of disc, triangle densely and irregularly foveolate, with polished area posteriorly; propodeum polished laterally below, densely and irregularly foveolate above; propodeal declivity without median carina, foveolate laterally. Mesopleuron nearly polished, anterior portion densely and irregularly foveolate, with a small central pit. Pleurosternum polished, with median groove paralleled posteriorly by carina and punctuate band. Fore wing with radial vein long, nearly reaching the anterior margin distally, discoidal vein spectral, arising medially from the transverse median vein. Fore femur 4.55 X as long as wide and mid femur 2.4 X.

Metasoma: segment I polished, the others weakly coriaceous, tergites with posterior bands of setae sparse medially, becoming progressively denser outward, sternites setose medially and posteriorly. Genitalia: paramere almost as long as basiparamere, width of paramere almost uniform, with a median inner callus in ventral view, apical margin rounded; volsella with ventral ramus of digitus small, 0.3 X length of paramere, apex rounded and strongly setose; aedeagus with three pairs of apical lobes, the dorsal and ventral lobes laminar, with surface vertical, apex directed downward, lobes separated by thin septum, inner lobe pair stout, membranous and setose.

Description allotype.—Female. Length 6.75 mm; LH 1.25 mm. Color: head, thorax and appendices castaneous, metasoma darker.

Head: mandibles with two large sharpened apical teeth, upper tooth smaller. Clypeus with short, broad trapezoidal median lobe, apical margin slightly convex medially, with small median tooth and moderately high median carina, arched in profile. Antennae with scape about 3.0 X as long as wide, antennomeres I–VII about as long as wide, flagellomeres VIII–XII shorter than wide. Eyes small, elliptical, facets indistinguishable, distance from mandibles 0.5 X their eye length. Front polished, shining, with few minute punctures. Head large, 0.86 X as long as broad in dorsal view, sides almost parallel, with rounded corners; vertex straight in dorsal view.

Mesosoma: maximum width across mesopleura level smaller than the head width. Pronotal disc slender, 1.3 X as long as wide, almost flat, surface shining, smooth, anterior margin excavated medially, anterior corners rounded, punctures few, sparse, shallow. Mesoscutum separated from the pronotal disc by a deep groove. Propodeal disc flat, slightly inclined posteriorly, 1.5 X as long as posterior width, with strong constriction in anterior third, with weak, well­defined lateral carina; spiracle located on propodeal side entirely placed at lateral of propodeum. Forebasitarsis with two spines on inner margin basally and four spines on distal margin, segments II–IV distal margin also spinose. Mid tibiae strongly spinose. Distal margin of hindtarsal segment I–II with two spines. Claws simple.

Metasoma: 1.75 X mesosoma length. Segment I polished, segments II–V weakly coriaceous, tergites with posterior bands of setae, asetose medially, progressively denser outward, sternites setose posteriorly, sternites I–II also setose medially.

Material examined.— Holotype: male, INDIA, Karnataka, Chikmagalur, Farm of Coffee Research Station , 12.I.2000, extracted from stem borer larvae of Xylotrechus quadripes from tunnels of infested coffee stems, H.G. Seetharama col. ( UFES) . Allotype, female, 6 males and 6 females paratypes, same data as holotype ( UFES) .

Variations.— Female forebasitarsus with one spine on inner margin basally.

Comments.— The Oriental Bethylidae fauna is poorly known, with few keys to species. Terayama (1993), in a bethylid checklist of the Oriental and the southeastern part of Palaearctic regions, cataloged just 16 species of Apenesia , including three from India. The majority of these species were poorly described about 100 years ago, which makes them difficult to identify.

Apenesia sahyadrica sp. nov. differs from others species in the genus, because the punctuation is sparse and shallow, and the propodeal disc lacks a carina. Aside from these characteristics, A. sahyadrica resembles A. mindanaensis (Fouts, 1930) but it differs from it by the different coloration, that is rufous in A. mindanaensis and black in A. sahyadrica . A. minor ( Kieffer, 1913) has the clypeus truncate, with a sharpened tooth in the apex, mandibles with one tooth and a pterostigma vein, whereas A. sahyadrica sp nov. has clypeus rounded, mandibles with three teeth and absence of pterostigma vein. A. percurrens is similar to A. sahyadrica sp. nov. but there is not posmarginal vein.

The sex association in Apenesia is difficult because of the strong sexual dimorphism. Presently, there is only one confirmed association between male and female of any species of Apenesia . Krombein (1989) described A. forchhammeri Krombein (1989) from a pair taken in copula in a Malaise trap. Kieffer (1913) described both sexes of A. philippinenis , but the association was not justified. A. sahyadrica is described from both sexes reared on the same host.

Females Apenesia are rarely collected. The few described females are apterous and smaller than the male. Nevertheless, the females studied in this paper are unusually big. They are slightly larger than the males, other differences being the clypeus truncate in females and rounded in males, two big teeth in mandibles in females and five in males.

Biology. —This species was extracted from the tunnels of the coffee white stem borer, X. quadripes Chevrolat ( Coleoptera , Cerambycidae ). Apenesia sahyadrica is being used as an important natural enemy of this stem borer in coffee crop in India.

Etymogeny.— The specific epithet refers to the area name in Indian classical Sanskrit where the specimens were collected, Sahyadri, a coffee growing area in Western ghats of India.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Apenesia sahyadrica sp. nov. 1–4. male, 1. head and mesosoma in dorsal view; 2. mandible in frontal view; 3. genitalia in ventral view; 4. genitalia in dorsal view; 5–6. female. 5. head and mesosoma in dorsal view; 6. mandible in frontal view. (scale bar = 250 m).