Phycitiplex lepidus Porter, 2008

Porter, Charles C., 2008, New Phycitiplex Porter (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Subandean Desert in northwest Argentina, Insecta Mundi 2008 (56), pp. 1-13 : 10-12

Phycitiplex lepidus Porter , new species

( Fig. 6 )

Description. Female Holotype. Color: antenna brownish black with a white band on flagellomeres 6- 9; head and mesosoma black with the following white: large blotch on base of mandible, most of clypeus, large blotch on center of face, broad band on orbits except for a short break at bottom of eye, broad band on

anterior and humeral margins of pronotum, most of tegula, line on subalarum, anterior 0.5 of scutellum, and a broad band from each crista to apex on apical face of propodeum; gaster with tergite 1 dark red, 2 and 3 duller red with some dusky staining laterad, and tergites 4-8 shining black with a broad and complete apical white band on 4, and similar but dorsally much interrupted white bands on 5-7; fore and mid legs with coxa black and blotched with white, trochanter white with dorsum mostly black, trochantellus black and reddish brown, femur light orange, tibia duller orange and faintly dusky, and tarsus blackish with weak brown staining; hind leg with coxa, trochanters, and femur red to orange red, tibia duller orange with slight dusky staining and black on apical 0.1, and tarsus black with white on third segment and on basal 0.5 of fourth; wings hyaline.

Length of forewing 5.0 mm. Flagellum with first segment 4.5 times as long as deep at apex. Malar space 0.66 times as long as basal width of mandible. Wing venation: intercubiti well convergent above but second abscissa of radius 0.7 times as long as first intercubitus. First gastric tergite: postpetiole nearly parallel-sided, only 1.2 times as wide at apex as long from spiracle to apex, dorsal longitudinal carinae defined but not sharp toward apex on petiole and basally on postpetiole. Ovipositor: decurved, sheathed portion 0.56 times as long as forewing and tip 0.27 times as high at notch as long from notch to apex, with a somewhat convex taper in profile from notch to apex.

Female. Paratype. Color: second gastric tergite with a narrow whitish apical band, white bands on other tergites broad but developed only for a short distance ventrolaterally, that on 7 developed throughout laterally but not reaching onto dorsum; hind tarsomeres 3 and 4 white.

Length of forewing 3.1 mm. Flagellum: first segment 5.4 times as long as deep at apex. Malar space 0.75 times as long as basal width of mandible. Wing venation: second abscissa of radius 0.6 times as long as first intercubitus. First gastric tergite: postpetiole 1.1 times as wide apically as long from spiracle to apex.

Type material. Holotype female, ARGENTINA, La Rioja Province, Sierra de Velasco, Santa Vera Cruz , 1700 m, 15-31-XII-2003, P. Fidalgo, Malaise trap [ IMLA] ; Paratype female, same as holotype except 1-15-XI-2003 [ IMLA] .

Relationships. In its long decurved ovipositor and slender postpetiole this species resembles P. trichroma from which it differs in some details of coloration (upper metapleuron wholly white) and in such structural details as its longer malar space (0.66-0.75 basal width of mandible).

Figures

Figure 6. Phycitiplex lepidus, female, holotype. Santa Vera Cruz, La Rioja, Argentina. Lateral view of entire insect.