Afrepipona lamellata, Selis & Carpenter, 2024

Selis, Marco & Carpenter, James M., 2024, Revision of the Afrotropical genus Afrepipona Giordani Soika, 1965 and description of Afrepsilon gen. nov. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae), European Journal of Taxonomy 944, pp. 1-80 : 16-19

Afrepipona lamellata sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0B5D75BA-A8CC-48BB-A9DA-57BC5E79C6C6

Fig. 7

Diagnosis

Similar to A. tertia in the following characters: robust appearance; sharply carinate and strongly protruding interantennal space; occipital carina strong on gena and absent on vertex ( Fig. 7A ); pronotal carina forming a high lamella; lateral face of pronotum with a longitudinal carina; T1 much wider than long; barely noticeable apical translucent margin of T2 ( Fig. 7D ); head and mesosoma with punctures of variable density, but mostly with flattened interspaces, T1 and T2 nearly impunctate. Distinguished from it by outer margin of tegula emarginate anteriorly, punctures on mesosoma larger and denser, especially in posterior half of mesoscutum interspaces at most as long as puncture diameter, posterior margin of scutellum with more series of punctures and interspaces reduced to ridges.

Etymology

The specific epithet is in reference to the highly lamellate pronotal carina.

Type material

Holotype

IVORY COAST • ♀; Tai National Park , IET Station; 5°50′00″ N, 7°20′31″ W; 24–25 Feb. 1997; R. Longair leg.; MSNVE.

Description

Female

MEASUREMENTS. Body length 6.5 mm; fore wing length 6.0 mm.

MORPHOLOGY. Head 1.25 × as wide as long in frontal view. Clypeus 1.3 × as wide as long, apical margin weakly convex between lateral teeth, 0.4 × as wide as maximum width of clypeus; apical teeth right-angled with barely developed short carinae; disc and lower half of clypeus shallowly depressed, clypeus in lateral view almost flattened, barely convex in upper half. Interantennal space sharply carinate and strongly produced in dorsal view. Vertex 2.2 × as long as distance from posterior ocellus to inner eye margin; cephalic foveae very small and close to each other, almost equidistant from posterior ocelli and occipital margin, placed in a smooth and shiny depression about as large as one ocellus but not welldelimited; gena 0.75 × as wide as eye at bottom of ocular sinus; occipital carina incomplete, strong on gena but disappearing at level of dorsal lobe of eye, vertex completely ecarinate and depressed in the middle of posterior margin. F1 1.2 × as long as wide and 1.3 × as long as F2, F2–9 transverse. Fifth tooth of mandible small and subtriangular with rounded apex. Mesosoma 1.15 × as long as wide. Sides of pronotum sinuate in dorsal view, slightly depressed behind humeri; anterior margin completely straight; pronotal carina complete and forming a high smooth and shiny lamella on dorsal face, rounded on humeri; pretegular carina very dull and rounded; lateral face of pronotum with vertical carina as continuation of epicnemial carina. Mesoscutum 0.9 × as long as wide, barely convex in lateral view. Scutellum weakly convex and smoothly passing into mesoscutum and metanotum, forming single even curve; anterior margin coarsely crenate with 9 pits, median one about twice as large as others. Metanotum flattened with shallowly projecting anterior margin. Tegula equaling parategula, outer margin straight in anterior third and strongly rounded in posterior two thirds, posterior lobe more or less right-angled; parategula small and strongly bent, almost semicircular. Mesepisternum angularly bulging posteriorly; epicnemial carina strong but dull, almost reaching margin of pronotum; furrows strongly crenate. Propodeum extended horizontally behind metanotum for a length equal to half metanotum, then falling vertically; posterior face almost flattened and separated from dorsal faces by weak dorsal carinae, made irregular by coarse sculpture; lateral faces flattened; lateral and inferior carinae absent. T1 almost semicircular, 0.45 × as long as wide in dorsal view; apical margin with short hyaline lamella, longer on sides. T2 0.75 × as long as wide in dorsal view, apically with very short and barely visible lamellar margin, hyaline medially and translucent laterally. S2 evenly convex from base to apex, apically with lamellar margin slightly longer than that on T2.

SCULPTURE AND VESTITURE. Clypeus shiny with large shallow oblique punctures, disappearing on basal corners, interspaces flattened and variable in size from half to three puncture diameters. Frons and vertex with deep punctures, interspaces flattened and finely micropunctate, shorter than half puncture diameter on frons and reaching one and half puncture diameters on vertex, disappearing near occipital margin; gena punctured like vertex but interspaces wider and shiny, punctures disappearing on yellow spot. Scape shiny with very shallow shagreen and scattered fine punctures. Most of mesosoma with punctures similar to those on vertex, but larger on mesoscutum and mesepisternum; punctures on pronotum variable in size and density, finer and denser posteromedially and becoming larger and denser anterolaterally, lateral faces of pronotum coarsely striate and punctate; mesoscutum with interspaces micropunctate and mostly shorter than one puncture diameter, but reaching up to one puncture diameter, posterior half with three large impunctate areas; scutellum mostly smooth with very fine and irregular micropunctures, very few scattered punctures near anterior margin and two to three rows of close punctures on posterior margin arranged in longitudinal series; coarse punctures on mesepisternum, interspaces very variable, ranging from half puncture diameter to being reduced to sharp ridges, epicnemium and mesosternum matte with coarse punctures posteriorly; metaepisternum matte and shagreened; dorsal faces of propodeum with very large flat-bottomed punctures, interspaces mostly reduced to sharp ridges, some interspaces flattened and matte due to very fine shagreen and microstriation; posterior face dull due to microsculpture similar to interspaces of dorsal faces and with some polygonal cells along upper margin; lateral faces matte due to fine microstriation, shiny at bottom of large flat-bottomed punctures in posterior half. T1 finely shagreened with silky shine, bearing very scattered shallow punctures, more evident on disc; T2 similar to T1 but punctures more evident, becoming suddenly larger and deeper on preapical area; T3–6 punctured like preapical area of T2, but punctures becoming progressively finer and sparser; S1 shagreened with silky shine, some shallow irregular punctures along posterior margin; S2 with large deep punctures not reaching preapical area, interspaces larger than puncture diameter, preapically with series of fine punctures delimiting apical lamellar margin; S3–5 similar to respective tergites but punctures finer, interspaces with progressively denser micropunctures; S6 densely micropunctate with some scattered larger punctures. Head and mesosoma with sparse and very short white pubescence, slightly denser on basal margin of clypeus and lower half of frons, and some barely visible appressed pale setae; longer setae present on mesepisternum and lateral angles of propodeum; metasoma with dense brownish dust-like pubescence, sparse erect setae on apical margin of T2–5 and most of T6 and S1–6.

COLORATION. Black; following parts ferruginous: clypeus, mandible except teeth, interantennal space, part of scape, tegula, propodeal valvula, most of legs, sides of T1, whole S1; following parts pale yellow: irregular basal spot on mandible, broad basal band on clypeus medially interrupted, spearshaped marking on interantennal space, space between eye and antennal insertion, narrow line at bottom of ocular sinus, lower face of scape, elongate spot on gena at height of ocular sinus, paired transverse spot on anterior margin of pronotum extending on pronotal carina, anterior corner of tegula, parategula, anterior half of metanotum, narrow apical margin on T1–2 and S2, spots on mid and hind coxa, apical half of outer face of fore and mid femora, outer face of fore tibia except elongate brown median mark, outer face of mid and hind tibia except base and apex. Wings weakly and evenly infuscate.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution

Ivory Coast.

Figures

Fig. 7. Afrepipona lamellata sp. nov., ♀, holotype from Tai National Park (MSNVE). A. Habitus, dorsal view. B. Head, frontal view. C. Head, dorsal view. D. T2–3, dorsal view. Scale bar = 1 mm.