Apanteles (Choeras) semilunatus Song & Chen

Song, Sheng-Nan, He, Jun-Hua & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2014, The subgenus Choeras Mason, 1981 of genus Apanteles Foerster, 1862 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from China, with descriptions of eighteen new species, Zootaxa 3754 (5), pp. 501-554 : 533-534

Apanteles (Choeras) semilunatus Song & Chen , sp. n.

( Figure 13. a–j )

Description. Female. Length of body 2.8 mm, of fore wing 3.6 mm.

Head. 2.1 times as wide as long, narrower than mesoscutum. Antenna with 18 segments and with short setae, slightly shorter than the body, subapical antennal segments slightly elongated, length of 16th segment 0.9 times as long as 15th segment, length of third segment equal to fourth segment, length of third, fourth, 15th, 16th and penultimate segments 2.6, 2.4, 1.5, 1.5 and 1.6 times as long as their width, respectively. In dorsal view length of eye 1.9 times as long as temple. Ocellar triangle softly shiny, finely setose and punctulate. Ocelli in a very low triangle, the posterior transverse tangent to the median ocellus cutting deeply into the posterior pair; ocelli large, their diameter longer than the distance between the hind and fore ocellus. OOL: OD: POL= 15: 7: 12. Frons smooth and distinctly concave medially, narrowly strigose laterally and punctulate posteriorly. Temple and vertex densely setose and punctulate. Face sparsely setose, strigose laterally and rather sparsely punctulate medially. Face with an incompletely longitudinal carina medially near the antennal sockets, its length about half of the length of face. Clypeus slightly strigose, sparsely setose and punctulate. Clypeus concave ventrally. Length of malar space 1.5 times as long as basal width of mandible.

Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.3 times as long as its height. Side of pronotum largely smooth and strongly shiny, but the part near mesoscutum punctulate and setose, with narrow ventral furrow and dorsal furrow which with a few longitudinal carinae. Propleuron smooth and softly shiny. Prepectal carina absent. Precoxal sulcus shallow and smooth. Mesopleuron largely smooth, glabrous and shiny, narrowly and densely punctulate and setose anteriorly and ventrally. Mesoscutum softly shiny, finely and rather densely punctulate, densely setose. Notauli absent. Scutellar sulcus narrow with several longitudinal carinae, its width about equal to length of scutellum. Scutellum slightly convex medially, sparsely setose and punctulate, strongly shiny. Side of scutellum with rather narrow crenulate depression, lunula large-sized and semicircular. Propodeum with rugose median band, and a complete irregular longitudinal median carina which at its base bifurcates into several irregularly short oblique carinae. Propodeum rugose laterally, the remainder sparsely setose and punctulate, softly shiny.

Wings. Fore wing evenly covered with brown hairs, denser towards the apex. Pterostigma relatively wide, 2.4 times as long as wide. Vein 1-R1 1.4 times as long as pterostigma and 8.0 times as long as the distance from it to the top of marginal cell. Vein r (actually r plus part of 2-SR because of low position of r-m) 3.2 times as long as 2- SR and distinctly curved, r arising far beyond the middle of pterostigma and much longer than breadth of pterostigma. Vein 2-SR straight. Areolet very small, vein r-m arising from vein 2-SR at a considerable distance proximal to the junction of vein r and 2-SR. 1-CU1: 2-CU1= 6: 5. Vein 1-SR pointing to the junction of 1-CU1 and 2-CU1. Hind wing evenly covered with brown hairs, setose. Vein cu-a distinctly curved. Edge of vannal lobe beyond its widest part more or less straight and here with a fringe of hairs.

Legs. Hind coxa strongly shiny and smooth laterally and dorsally, densely setose ventrally. Length of hind coxa longer than half of thorax. Tarsal claws setose. Hind basitarsus relatively short. Longer spur of middle tibia reaching apex of middle basitarsus and terminating in a long bristle. Femur, tibia and basitarsus of hind leg 3.1, 4.4 and 3.2 times as long as their width. Length of hind tibial spurs 0.4 and 0.6 times as long as hind basitarsus respectively. Hind femur rather densely setose and punctulate.

Metasoma. Tergite I subtriangular and much narrower apically, its basal width 2.4 times as long as its apical width which is 1.3 times as long as median length of tergite II; smooth, shiny and sparsely setose apically, basal half with a relatively wide and shallow excavation. Tergite II subtriangular, apical margin curved which is 0.3, 4.2 times as long as basal width and its length, the lateral margins wider than tergite I; shiny, smooth and sparsely setose apically. Tergite III smooth basally half, the remainder densely setose and punctulate. Remaining tergites softly shiny, densely setose and punctulate. Ovipositor sheath slightly curved and finely hairy, relatively slender at base and apex, but wide and nearly parallel-sided medially, its length (total length) 0.6 times as long as length of hind tibia. Hypopygium subhyaline and largely sclerotized, only near median line membranous and tightly folded along the middle line, with narrow longitudinal creases laterally and acute apically.

Colour. Head black. Labrum dark brown. Clypeus and face black. Mandibles reddish brown. Eyes silver greyish. Scape and pedicel yellowish brown. Flagellum brown. Mesosoma black. Wing membrane subhyaline and weakly infuscate. Pterostigma and veins of fore wings dark brown except r-m weakly pigmented, basal part of veins M+CU1 and C+SC+R yellowish-brown. Veins of hind wing weakly pigmented. All coxa black except middle coxa apically yellow. Fore leg yellow except coxa. Middle and hind trochanter black with indefinite yellow streaks. Middle femur largely black and apically 0.4 yellow, in a small area at the base yellow. Hind femur mainly black, in a small area at the apex and base yellow. Middle tibia and tarsus pale yellow, except distal tarsi black. Hind tibia yellow basally 0.4 and remainder black. Hind tarsus yellowish brown, except distal tarsi black. Tibial spurs pale yellow. Tergites black. Ovipositor reddish brown, its sheath dark brown.

Variation. Body length 2.4–2.8 mm. Fore wing length 3.0– 3.6 mm. The paratype with the same characteristics as holotype, but slightly different in eye colour.

Male. Unknown.

Biology. Unknown.

Material examined. Holotype, ♀, China, Guangdong Prov., Fogang, Guanyinshan, 2007. IX. 15–16, Xu Zaifu, No. 200711517 ( ZJUH). Paratypes: 1♀, China, Guangdong Prov., Longmen, Nankunshan, 2004. V. 12, Xu Zaifu, No. 20053122 ( ZJUH).

Distribution. China (Guangdong) ( Fig. 22 ).

Remark. The new species is similar to Apanteles (Choeras) psarae (Wilkinson, 1927) , but can be distinguished by the edge of vannal lobe beyond its widest part with a fringe of hairs (the latter without a hairfringe); the tergite I basally 2.4 times as wide as apical width (the latter about 1.5 times); and the metasoma black (the latter almost entirely yellow).

Etymology. The specific name “ semilunatus ” derives from the Latin adjective, referring to the lunula of scutellum large-sized and semicircular.

Figures

FIGURE 22. Distribution map of Choeras species in China III. ●: Apanteles (Choeras) parviocellus Song & Chen, sp. n.; ┼: Apanteles (Choeras) rugulosus Song & Chen, sp. n.; ▲: Apanteles (Choeras) semilunatus Song & Chen, sp. n.; Δ: Apanteles (Choeras) semirugosus Song & Chen, sp. n..

FIGURE 13. a – j. Apanteles (Choeras) semilunatus Song & Chen, sp. n. a, habitus, lateral view; b, antenna; c, fore wing; d, hind wing; e, head, dorsal view; f, head, frontal view; g, mesosoma, dorsal view; h, mesosoma, lateral view; i, T 1 – T 3, dorsal view; j, metasoma, lateral view.