Oligosita younusi Yousuf & Shafee

Begum, Salma, Anis, Shoeba Binte & Khan, Mohd Talib, 2015, A revision of the Indian species of Oligosita Walker (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), Zootaxa 3973 (3), pp. 401-424 : 421-422

Oligosita younusi Yousuf & Shafee

( Figs 34–35 )

Oligosita younusi Yousuf & Shafee, 1988: 155 , ♀, India, Uttar Pradesh, Aligarh (ZDAMU, examined). Oligosita younusi Yousuf & Shafee : Hayat, 2008: 8, ♀, figures, key, taxonomy. Fatma et al., 2012: 7, ♀, ♂, Uttarakhand record. Begum & Anis, 2013: 45, ♀, list, records. Begum & Anis, 2014: 9, checklist. Fatma et al., 2014: 117, ♀, Uttarakhand and Assam records.

Redescription. Female. Length, 0.52 mm. Body dark brown; frontovertex yellow; mouth margin, malar space and occiput dark brown; eye dark. Antennal scape brown in basal half and pale brown in apical half; pedicel and flagellum brownish. Mandible with tip golden yellowish brown. Mesosoma dark brown with mesoscutum and scutellum yellow to pale yellow. Fore wing with two infuscate patches, one in distal third of marginal vein across disc and the second at parastigma. Legs with coxae, and hind femora dark brown, other femora except apices, and last tarsal segments of tarsi, brown to pale brown; rest of leg parts whitish to pale yellow. Gaster with TII −IV except sides of TIII and TIV, and ventral half yellow to pale yellow.

Head with transversely elongated striations on occipital area; eye height 1.8× as long as malar space (46:26). Mandible tridentate. Antenna ( Fig. 34 ) with scape 3.62× as long as broad (29:8); pedicel 1.9× as long as broad (17:9); funicle 1.62× as long as broad (13:8); clava about 3× as long as broad (39:13); apex of clava with a rod-like structure.

Mesosoma. Mesoscutum and scutellum with scale like reticulation; mid lobe of mesoscutum 1.1× as broad as long (40:38); scutellum 1.75× as broad as long (35:20); mesophragma extending up to TIII of gaster. Fore wing ( Fig. 35 ) 4× as long as broad (180:45); marginal fringe 1.2× as long as wing width (53:45); hind wing 21× as long as broad (168:8); marginal fringe 5.75× as long as wing width (46:8).

Metasoma. Gaster longer than mesosoma; ovipositor about 1.20−1.3× of hind tibia and 1.3−1.4× of mid tibia, originating from TIV.

Male. The male recorded by Fatima et al. (2012) probably does not belong to this species, and therefore it is not described.

Type material examined. Holotype, ♀ (on 2 slides), labelled, “518 Oligosita younusi sp.n. M. Yousuf Aligarh 10.I.1986 ” and a ticket with ‘Holotype’ written in red ink ( ZDAMU, HYM. CH.352).

Additional material examined. INDIA: UTTAR PRADESH: Aligarh, Dept. of Botany, 1 ♀, 13.x.2010, coll.

S. Begum. ORISSA [= Odisha], Tharsuguda, Barela, 1♀, 17.xii.2007, coll. F.R. Khan ( ZDAMU). Material determined and listed by Fatma et al. (2012), Begum & Fatima (2013) and Fatma et al. (2014) was also examined.

Distribution. India: Assam; Orissa; Uttarakhand; Uttar Pradesh.

Comments. The original description of this species was based on 2 females and one male. The female holotype is on two slides, one slide with both antennae (one minus scape) and one fore wing under a large coverslip and the rest of the body (head detached and broken) on the second slide under a small coverslip. Hayat (2008) noted that the specimens labelled as ‘Paratype’ has the collection date ‘ 27.ix.1985 ’ different from the collection date of the holotype ’ 10.I.1986 ’, whereas the authors say that the paratypes have the ‘same data as the holotype’. Therefore, Hayat (2008) considered these as non-type specimens.

Oligosita younusi appears similar to O. magnifica Dozier (1937) based on the brief notes and the figures given by Viggiani (1981), but can be separated by the presence of two infuscate patches, one each beneath the stigmal and premarginal veins, and the antennal clava is 3× as long as broad. In O. magnifica the fore wing has one infuscate patch beneath the stigmal vein, and the clava is 3.8× as long as broad.

Figures

FIGURES 34, 35. Oligosita younusi Yousuf & Shafee, female: 34, antenna, Aligarh specimen; 35, fore wing, Assam specimen.