Sternaulopius macrophthalmos Sheng & Chen, 2019

Sheng, Ying-Yi, Wu, Qiong, Achterberg, Cornelis Van & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2019, Three newly recorded genera from China (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Opiinae) with the notes on the genus Neopius and descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 4604 (3), pp. 588-600 : 595-598

Sternaulopius macrophthalmos Sheng & Chen sp. n.

Type material. Holotype, ♀ ( NWUX), “SW. China: Sichuan, Liziping Ya’an , 1805 m, N29.11° E102.34°, 21. VII.2016, swept, Tong Zhou” . Paratype: 1³ ( ZJUH), “NE. China: Jilin, Dongliao , 23–31. VII.1988, Xiaoming Lou, No. 888185” .

Description. FAMALE. Holotype. Length. Body 2.5 mm, of fore wing 2.5 mm.

Head. Antenna broken, with at least 24 segments ( Fig. 23 ), third segment 1.2× as long as fourth segment, length of third and fourth segments 2.5 and 2.2× their width ( Fig. 32 ); length of maxillary palp 0.9× height of head ( Fig. 23 ); length of eye in dorsal view 2.8× temple; frons slightly depressed behind antennal socket, entirely smooth, glabrous and shiny; temple, vertex and stemmaticum shiny, smooth, and with sparse setae; OOL: diameter of ocellus: POL= 12:7:8 ( Fig. 34 ); occipital carina absent dorsally, somewhat protruding and with slightly crenulate in lateral view, moderately far from hypostomal carina; hypostomal carina narrow, protruding downwards ( Fig.35 ); face densely punctate, densely sculptured near margin of eyes and sparsely setose; labrum glabrous and smooth, slightly depressed; clypeus transverse, slightly punctate, convex, and its ventral margin truncate; width of clypeus 1.8× its maximum height and 0.5× width of face; hypoclypeal depression moderate; mandible twisted, apically gradually narrowed and with second teeth much smaller than first tooth; malar suture sculptured and slightly curved; malar space slightly shorter than basal width of mandible ( Fig. 33 ).

Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.4× its height; dorsal pronope small and round ( Fig. 29 ); pronotal side largely transversely sculptured medially, smooth anteriorly and dorsally; propleuron smooth, sculptured and depressed ventro-posteriorly; epicnemial area entirely crenulate; both precoxal sulcus and sternaulus present on mesopleuron, precoxal sulcus widely strong crenulated and distinctly impressed, absent ventro-posteriorly, connected with anterior sculpture of mesopleuron; sternaulus slightly curved, strongly crenulate and absent posteriorly; remainder of mesopleuron smooth and shiny, sparsely setose antero-dorsally and postero-ventrally; pleural sulcus distinctly crenulate; mesosternum sparsely setose ( Fig. 29 ); mesosternal sulcus deep, medium-sized and crenulate; postpectal carina present but only medially ( Fig. 24 ); anterior groove of metapleuron densely crenulate ventrally, posterior margin of metapleuron crenulate medially, metapleuron sculptured ventrally and smooth medially ( Fig. 29 ); mesoscutum very shiny, smooth and sparsely setose; notauli depressed, crenulate and elongates until half of mesoscutum, absent posteriorly; medio-posterior depression of mesoscutum relatively big, round and shallow; scutellar sulcus wide, deep and with 4 long, parallel-sided crenulate; scutellum flattened and smooth, not convex ( Fig. 30 ); lateral axillar lamella narrow; propodeum with a short medio-longitudinal carina and two oblique transverse carinae medially, surface of propodeum coarsely reticulate-rugose, with several short longitudinal carinae and posteriorly bordered by curved carina ( Figs 29–31 ).

Wings. Fore wing: pterostigma near triangular; 1-R1 ending at wing apex and 1.2× as long as pterostigma; r long and linear with 3-SR with obtuse angle; r-m not tubular; r:3-SR:SR1= 9:33:57; 2-SR:3-SR:r-m= 24:33:12; 1- M distinctly curved, 1-SR 0.5× longer than 1-M; SR1 nearly straight; m-cu distinctly postfurcal and straight; cu-a postfurcal, 1-CU1 widened; 1-CU1:2-CU1 = 1:10; 2-CU1: m-cu=20:13; first subdiscal cell closed; CU1b mediumsized; M+CU1 sclerotized ( Fig. 27 ). Hind wing: 1-M of hind wing straight, resulting in subparallel-sided cell apically; M+CU:1-M:1r-m = 37:27:17; m-cu slightly sclerotized; cu-a straight; SR absent ( Fig. 28 ).

Legs. Length of femur, tibia and basitarsus of hind leg 4.8, 7.6 and 3.2× as long as width, respectively ( Fig. 36 ); femur moderately setose, tarsus and tibia densely setose.

Metasoma. Length of first tergite 1.1× its apical width, convex and largely longitudinally costate-striate, dorsal carinae strong basally and reaching apex of tergite ( Fig. 31 ); dorsope slightly impressed; second suture almost invisible; basal depressions of second tergite shallow and second tergite 0.9× as long as third tergite; second and following tergites smooth, shiny; third tergite convex in lateral view ( Fig. 25 ); combined length of second and third metasomal tergites 0.5× total length of metasoma; hypopygium membranous medially (but with two elongate sclerites submedially) and posteriorly, with its posterior margin near straight ( Fig. 26 ); length of setose part of ovipositor sheath 0.5× first tergite ( Fig. 26 ).

Colour. Black; head (except mandible), mesosoma, first tergite, third tergite posteriorly to sixth tergite black; mandible, second tergite posteriorly brown; second tergite anteriorly yellow.

MALE. Length of fore wing 2.4 mm; length of third and fourth segments 3.5 and 3.0× their width, length of eye in dorsal view 1.7× temple; OOL: diameter of ocellus: POL= 17:7:12; width of clypeus 2.3× its maximum height; dorsal pronope absent; length of hind femur and basitarsus 4× and 4.5× its width; length of first tergite 1.7× its apical width.

Distribution. China (Oriental: Sichuan, Palaearctic: Jilin).

Biology. Unknown.

Etymology. Name is derived from “macro” (Greek for “big”) and “ophthaloms” (Greek for “eye”) because of the rather long eye (nearly 3× as long as temple in dorsal view).

Comments. The hypopygium of the female is typical for the genus because of its membranous parts; third tergite convex in lateral view; postpectal carina present but only medially so; occipital carina absent dorsally, somewhat protruding and with slight crenulae in lateral view; precoxal sulcus wide and strongly crenulate and distinctly impressed, absent posteriorly, widely connected with anterior sculpture of mesopleuron; sternaulus slightly curved, strongly crenulate and absent posteriorly.

The new species differs from S. duplicatus Wharton, 2006 , by having a medium-sized hypoclypeal depression (absent in S. duplicatus ), mesoscutum very shiny, smooth and sparsely setose (more densely setose); precoxal sulcus and sternaulus separate posteriorly (slightly converging posteriorly). The new species differs from S. bisternaulicus Fischer, 1965 by having length of eye in dorsal view 2.8× temple (1.1× in S. bisternaulicus ), mesoscutum very shiny, smooth and sparsely setose (densely covered with setae), vein 1-SR+M of fore wing slightly curved (straight), and vein 2-SR+M of fore wing rather short.

Figures

FIGURE 23–26. Sternaulopius macrophthalmos Sheng & Chen. sp. n., ♀, holotype, habitus. 23—lateral aspect.24—meso- soma ventral aspect. 25—metasoma lateral aspect. 26—metasoma ventral aspect.

FIGURES 27–36. Sternaulopius macrophthalmos Sheng & Chen, sp. n., ♀, holotype. 27—fore wing. 28—hind wing. 29— mesosoma lateral aspect (including precoxal sulcus and sternaulus). 30—mesosoma, dorsal view. 31—propodeum and first metasomal tergite, dorsal aspect. 32—antenna. 33—head, anterior aspect. 34—head, dorsal aspect. 35— head, lateral aspect. 36—hind leg, lateral aspect.