Synopeas samium, Buhl, 2016

Buhl, Peter Neerup, 2016, New European species of Platygastrinae, with an updated list of Latvian species of Platygastrinae and Sceliotrachelinae (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae), Latvijas Entomologs 53, pp. 3-13 : 5-6

Synopeas samium sp. nov. ( Figs 5-8 )

Holotype ♀ MZH: Greece, Samos , 12.10.1989, Martti Koponen .

Paratypes: 1♀ MZH, same data as in the holotype; 1♀ MZH, Samos, Oros Thios , 15.10.1989, Martti Koponen .

D e r i v a t i o n o m i n i s: Named after the island with the type localities.

D i a g n o s i s: Female about 1 mm long, with LOL 1.33 times as long as OOL, A9 fully 1.1 times as long as wide; notauli visible to 0.7 of length; scutellum distinctly sloping in posterior half, with a short and thin tooth or no tooth at all; female metasoma about as long as rest of body, 1.4 times as wide as high, T3-T6 combined hardly shorter than T1-T2 combined, T6 about 1.4 times as long as wide.

Description: ♀. Body length 0.90-1.15 mm. Black; antennae, mandibles, tegulae and legs dark brown; A1 basally, A3, trochanters, base and apex of fore tibiae, basal half of mid and hind tibiae, and segments 1-4 of all tarsi light brownish. Head from above ( Fig. 5 ) 1.9 times as wide as long, 1.2 times as wide as mesosoma, distinctly reticulate-coriaceous (not transversely so), without trace of a hyperoccipital carina. Frons with a longitudinal medial impression. LOL about one and a third times as long as OOL. Head in frontal view 1.15 times as wide as high. Antenna ( Fig. 6 ) with A1 shorter than height of head (13:16), longer than distance between inner orbits (13:12); A9 fully 1.1 times as long as wide. Mesosoma 1.6 times as long as wide, 1.2 times as high as wide. Sides of pronotum distinctly reticulate-coriaceous (not longitudinally so) on most of upper twothirds, smooth below and along hind margin. Mesoscutum with sparse, scattered setae, distinctly and almost uniformly reticulate-coriaceous; notauli weak, visible in posterior 0.7, fading out anteriorly, meeting in a fine point at hind margin, here at each side with about six long setae over the rather wide scuto-scutellar grooves. Mesopleuron smooth. Scutellum ( Fig. 7 ) with very sparse setae, much weaker sculptured than mesoscutum, without a carina, posteriorly with a small dark tooth with a narrow lamella below its base (on the smallest specimen only with a lamella, no tooth). Metapleuron smooth, with very few pilae in anterior 0.6, with a denser white fringe only along lower and hind margins. Propodeal carinae low, slightly translucent, very close together but separate. Fore wing 0.75 times as long as entire body, overreaching tip of metasoma by a distance hardly as long as length of T6, 2.5 times as long as wide, clear, with fine and dense microtrichia, without marginal cilia. Hind wing 5.4 times as long as wide; marginal cilia 0.25 width of wing. Metasoma ( Fig. 8 ) 0.95- 1.05 times as long as head and mesosoma combined, about as wide as mesosoma, 1.4 times as wide as high. T1-T2 smooth except for weak reticulation postero-laterally on T2. T3-T6 reticulate, on T4 only basally, on T5 only laterally, on T6 longitudinally so. T4- T6 with setae in shallow punctures: 6 on T4, about 10 more scattered on each of T5-T6.

Differential diagnosis: Generally similar to S. gastralis BUHL, 2001 from Spain, but that species has shorter OOL, notauli and apical segments of antennae (length of A4- A7 combined equal to A8-A10 combined in S. gastralis , whereas A8-A10 combined are fully 1.2 times as long as A4-A7 combined in S. samium ). Scutellum of S. samium is more convex and with a distinctly thinner scutellar tooth than in S. gastralis (in the smallest specimen of S. samium which is of equal size to the holotype of S. gastralis and thus best comparable to that, the scutellar tooth is even absent).

Figures

Figures 5-8. Synopeas samium sp. nov. holotype female. 5 – head from above; 6 – antenna; 7 – scutellum and propodeum in lateral view; 8 – metasoma from above.