Ascogaster Wesmael, 1835

Kittel, Rebecca N. & Austin, Andrew D., 2015, New species of Australian arid zone chelonine wasps from the genera Phanerotoma and Ascogaster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) informed by the ‘ Bush Blitz’ surveys of national reserves, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 211-262 : 221-224

Genus Ascogaster Wesmael, 1835

( Figures 2 , 4 – 7 , 15 )

http://species-id.net/wiki/ Ascogaster

Type. Ascogaster instabilis Wesmael, 1835: 227 (by subsequent designation: Förster, 1862: 244), IRSN (examined).

Ascogaster: Shenefelt 1973: 814 , Shaw 1983: 7, Huddleston 1984: 348, Tang and Marsh 1994: 281.

For diagnosis of Australian taxa, see Kittel and Austin (2014).

Comments

Leptodrepana , described by Shaw (1983) from the New World, is accepted as a valid genus by some authors (e.g. Shaw 1997; Brajkovic et al. 2010), while others have treated it as a junior synonym of Ascogaster ( van Achterberg 1990; Yu et al. 2005). Tang and Marsh (1994) followed van Achterberg ’ s synonymy and treated the new species from China as Ascogaster , but also suggested that a comprehensive revision of the group was needed as some species showed characters intermediate between Ascogaster and Leptodrepana . Shaw (1997) discussed the difficult status of Leptodrepana , arguing for a separate genus since Ascogaster would otherwise be paraphyletic. However, no comprehensive analysis has yet been undertaken using a combined morphological and multigene approach to resolve this question. Here we treat all relevant species as Ascogaster , but point out that A. brevivena sp. nov. exhibits characters intermediate between these two genera, such as having equilateral ocelli as in Leptodrepana .

Key to Ascogaster from the Australian arid zone

1. SR-1 not completely sclerotised, not extending to the margin of fore wing ( Figure 4e ); female with 22 antennomeres; ocelli equilateral ( Figure 4c )................. ................................................................................................. Ascogaster brevivena sp. nov.

- SR-1 completely sclerotised, extending to the margin of fore wing ( Figure 5e ); female with 19 antennomeres; ocelli isosceles ( Figure 5c ) ......................................... 2

2. Carapace elongate with extended tip, teeth on posterior end present ( Figure 6c , arrowed)................................... ................................... Ascogaster prolixogaster sp. nov.

- Carapace oval, but not elongated, posterior end rounded without teeth ( Figure 4a )......................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Carapace and legs orange ( Figure 5a ); notauli absent...................................................... ..................................................................................... Ascogaster ferruginegaster sp. nov.

- Carapace black ( Figure 7a ), legs brown with black coxa ( Figure 7a ); notauli present................................................................................ Ascogaster rubriscapa sp. nov.

Figures

Figure 2. Tree resulting from the Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the COI data for the genus Ascogaster. Numbers on branches show posterior probabilities. Abbreviations: (a) PTP analysis; (b) GMYC (single); (c) GMYC (multi); (d) morphology.

Figure 4. Ascogaster brevivena sp. nov.:(a) habitus, lateral,holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (b) mesosoma and metasoma, dorsal view, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (c) head, dorsal, holotype, scale line = 0.5 mm; (d) head, anterior, holotype, scale line = 0.5 mm; (e) fore wing, paratype, scale line = 0.5 mm.

Figure 5. Ascogaster ferruginegaster sp. nov.: (a) habitus, lateral, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (b) head, anterior, holotype, scale line = 0.5 mm; (c) head, dorsal, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (d) mesosoma dorsal, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (e) fore wing, holotype, scale line = 1 mm.

Figure 6. Ascogaster prolixogaster sp. nov.: (a) habitus, lateral, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (b) head, anterior, holotype, scale line = 0.5 mm; (c) metasoma, dorsal, holotype, scale line = 1 mm, metasomal teeth arrowed; (d) fore wing, paratype, scale line = 1 mm.

Figure 7. Ascogaster rubriscapa sp. nov.: (a) habitus, lateral, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (b) mesosoma, dorsal, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (c) metasoma, dorsal, holotype, scale line = 1 mm; (d) head, anterior view, holotype, scale line = 0.5 mm; (e) fore wing, holotype, scale line = 1 mm.

Figure 15. Distribution map: Ascogaster brevivena sp. nov., grey circle; Ascogaster ferruginegaster sp. nov., black triangle; Ascogaster prolixogaster sp. nov., grey triangle; Ascogaster rubriscapa sp. nov., black square.