Xorides praestans (Tosquinet, 1896)

Varga, Oleksandr, 2019, Revision of theAfrotropical Xorides Latréille, 1809 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae Xoridinae), with description of three new species, Zootaxa 4638 (1), pp. 57-80 : 73-74

Xorides praestans (Tosquinet, 1896)

( Fig. 9 )

Material examined. Holotype. SOUTH AFRICA [Capland]: female, without locality and date,? [Krebs.] (deposited in: ZMHB) . Other material. SOUTH AFRICA: male, KwaZulu-Natal, 1.5 km E Mtunzini 2831 Dd Umlalazi Nature Reserve, 1978 Malaise Trap, Indigenous forest, leg. R. M. Miller (deposited in: SAMC).

Diagnosis. Xorides praestans is characterized by the combination of the following characters: body generally dark orange; vertex rugulo-punctate; antenna subapically not sharply angled at a single joint; face rugulose; pronotum rugulo-punctate; epomia present; epicnemial carina absent; propodeum without carinae and tooth-like projections; fore and middle trochantelli without apical tooth; fore wing with vein cu-a basad of Rs&M by about 0.4 of its length; first metasomal tergite 2.4× as long as apical width, smooth proximally, densely punctate distally, transverse grooves and carinae absent; ovipositor about 3.3× length of hind tibia.

Re-description. Female. Holotype ( Fig. 9 ). Body length approximately 26.0 mm. Fore wing 14.0 mm.

Head ( Figs 9A, 9B, 9C, 9H ) depressed, temples parallel behind eyes, covered with short white setae; frons rugulose with long carina-like projection between antennal sockets; length of the ocellar-ocular distance 1.6× maximum diameter of lateral ocellus; ocelli small, hind ocellus not extended behind eye; temples transversely wrinkled ventrally; vertex rugulo-punctate; occipital carina complete; antenna broken, only several apical flagellomeres glued to triangle (looks like not sharply angled); face about 0.4× as long as wide, rugulose, tentorial pits deep; malar space 0.7× basal width of mandible, with weakly depressed subocular groove; clypeus 0.9× as long as wide, smooth, rounded apically.

Mesosoma ( Figs 9B, 9C, 9D, 9E ) with dense white setae; propleuron rugulo-punctate; pronotum swollen apically, rugulo-punctate, epomia present; mesoscutum elongate, rugulo-punctate, with weak notauli; scutellum and postscutellum densely punctate; mesopleuron the same punctation as mesoscutum; epicnemial carina absent; sternaulus weak and almost indistinct, present ventrally on proximal 0.5 of mesopleuron; metapleuron and propodeum the same sculpture as mesoscutum, propodeum without carinae and tooth-like projections; pleural carina absent, submetapleural carina present; spiracles elongate.

Legs slender, hind femur 3.5× as long as wide; hind coxae densely punctate, fore and middle tibiae swollen, as wide as femora; with V-shaped median ventral groove and subapical emargination; fore and middle trochantelli without apical tooth; tarsal claws simple.

Wings. Fore wing with vein 2 rs-m long, about 1.4× distance between 2 rs-m and 2 m-cu; vein cu-a basad of Rs&M by about 0.4 of its length; hind wing with distance between distal abscissa of Cu 1 and M about 1.6× length of vein cu-a.

Metasoma ( Figs 9D, 9G ) densely punctate; first tergite 2.4× as long as apical width, smooth proximally, densely punctate distally, transverse grooves and carinae absent; second tergite about as long as apical width, densely punctate, with two basolateral and third central triangular swellings delimited by basolateral and subapical transverse grooves; third tergite 0.6× as long as apical width, densely punctate, with swellings weak and almost indistinct; the remaining tergites short, indistinctly punctate on granulate surface; ovipositor about 3.3× length of hind tibia, with the apical teeth; ovipositor sheaths densely pubescent.

Colour. Body and legs generally dark orange with small black marks except clypeus, face medially, and laterally, line from temples to vertex, mesopleuron along mesopleural suture, propodeum proximally, second tergite apically, and pterostigma yellow.

Male. Generally similar to female, but tibiae without emarginations; first metasomal tergite longer, more than 3.0× as long as apical width; metasomal tergites 2–6 the same structure as the second tergite of female, but swellings weakly defined.

Distribution. South Africa.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Xorides praestans (Tosquinet, 1896), holotype female (scale bar is 0.5 mm):A) frontal view of head; B) dorsal view of head and mesoscutum; C) lateral view of head and mesosoma; D) dorsal view of propodeum and metasomal tergites 1–2; E) wings; F) type label; G) lateral view of the ovipositor apex; H) lateral view of apical flagellomeres.