Mesostenus kamileae Kaplan, 2024

Kaplan, Emin, 2024, Four new species of Darwin wasps from Türkiye, Zootaxa 5424 (4), pp. 456-466 : 459-461

Mesostenus kamileae Kaplan sp. nov.

( Figs 1 & 3 )

Material. Holotype: Female, Türkiye, Bingöl, İnali , N 38 o 53’ 27.46’’, E 40 o 31’ 29.97’’, 1073 m, 26.V.2020, leg, E. Kaplan.

Description (Holotype). Female (n=1). Body length 7.3 mm ( Fig. 3A ), fore wing length 5.9 mm; hind wing length 4.2 mm; ovipositor length 3.0 mm.

Head. Antenna with 36 flagellomeres; first flagellomere 4.9 × as long as wide;. Clypeus high and strongly convex in lateral view, its lateral margin almost straight; malar space long, about 1.0 × as long as basal width of mandible; face with rather sparse and fine punctures with setae including mandible; the part between antenna base and front occelli unpunctuated and shiny ( Fig. 3B ); gena short, very strongly narrowed behind the eyes and postgena quite shiny and sparse punctated; occipital carina basally slightly curved.

Mesosoma. Shiny and frequent punctures and covered with setae ( Fig. 3E ); notauli converge and fuse in scutellum; epomia present; pronotum smooth; mesopleuron with coarse punctures, denser in central part; sternaulus not reaching mid of mesopleuron; metapleuron centrally with coarse punctures and dorsally striate ( Fig. 3D ); propodeum with area basalis rough, setae and shiny; anterior transverse propodeal carina present, posterior transverse carina absent ( Fig. 3F ); lateromedian longitudinal and lateral longitudinal carinae present; area between propodeal apophyses and anterior transverse carina punctate; apex of propodeal apophyses sharp.

Metasoma. T1 polished, with sparse punctates, large dense punctures and dull T2, distinct lateral carinae present, dense small punctures and dull T2-7 ( Fig. 3G ). Fore wing with areolet nearly 1.3 × as wide as long and about 0.5 × as long as the portion of second recurrent vein above the bulla ( Fig. 3H ). Legs rather slender; hind femur about 5.4 × as long as wide ( Fig. 3G ).

Colouration. Body brownish black ( Fig.3A ).Antenna mostly black, scape black, pedicel brownish, flagellomeres mostly black but flagellomeres 9–11 dorsally whitish, ventrally blackish ( Fig. 3C ); front edge of compound eyes with yellow markings; middle of mandible with red marking ( Fig. 3B ). Pro- and mesosoma mostly black ( Fig. 3D ); tegulae and postscutellum with small white spot, mesopleuron, mesoscutum, metapleuron and propodeum black ( Fig. 3F ). Legs mostly brownish black, coxae and trochanters black, femur brownish anteriorly and black posteriorly; fore tibia and mid tibia brownish, hind tibia blackish; in fore and mid tarsomeres-V and tarsal claws blackish, other tarsomeres brownish; hind tarsomeres blackish. Metasoma brownish black, T1 basally black distally brown, T2 brownish; T3 basally brownish and distally blackish; T3–7 black ( Fig. 3G ). Colouration of sterna similar to terga. Wings hyaline, pterostigma brownish black, distal margin of fore wing slightly infuscate ( Fig. 3H ).

Male. Unknown.

Etymology. This species is dedicated to the author’s grandmother, Kamile Kaplan.

Host: Unknown.

Remarks. Mesostenus kamileae sp. nov. can be differentiated from M. transfuga ( Gravenhorst, 1829) by the following combination of characters: flagellomeres 9–11 dorsally whitish, ventrally blackish (flagellomeres completely black in M. transfuga ); T1 basally black distally brown (T1 entirely black in M. transfuga ); and punctures dense and large and T2 dull (T2 shiny and with sparse small punctures in M. transfuga ); distinct lateral carinae present (without distinct lateral carinae in M. transfuga ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map showing where the species Cryptus ayseae (1), Mesostenus kamileae (2), Ichneumon licensis (3) and Exochus ahmedi (4) were collected from eastern Türkiye.

FIGURE 3. Mesostenus kamileae Kaplan sp. nov., female (holotype): A. habitus (lateral view); B. head (frontal view); C. Antennae (lateral view); D. head and mesosoma (lateral view); E. mesosoma (dorsal view); F. mesosoma and propodeum (dorsal view); G. terga, hindleg and ovipositor (lateral view); H. fore wing and hind wing (dorsal view). Scale bar: 1 mm (A, G, H); 0.5 mm (B, C, D, E, F).