Habrolepis obscura Compere & Annecke

Hayat, Mohammad, Ahmad, Zubair & Khan, Farmanur Rehman, 2014, Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Zootaxa 3793 (1), pp. 1-59 : 29-30

Habrolepis obscura Compere & Annecke

( Figs 63–69 )

Habrolepis obscurus Compere & Annecke, 1961: 45 –47, ♀. South Africa.

Habrolepis obscura Compere & Annecke: Annecke & Mynhardt, 1970b : 128, 137–143, ♀, ♂, taxonomy, figures.

Diagnosis. Female. Length, 0.84 mm. Body dark brown with metallic shine; frontovertex largely with greenish blue shine, but with bronzy shine between occipital margin and posterior ocelli; interscrobal area, mouth margin and malar space bluish. Antenna ( Fig. 63 ) with radicle and scape dark brown; pedicel dark brown, apex narrowly yellow; F1–F4 brown, F5 pale brown, F6 white; clava brown to dark brown, yellowish brown apically. Mesoscutum with bluish and bronzy shine; axilla bluish; scutellum coppery, with sides and posterior margin bluish. Fore wing with infuscated and hyaline areas as in Fig. 66 . Legs, including coxae, dark brown, except as follows: fore and mid trochanters whitish; hind trochanter brown; mid femur with base and apex white; fore tibia in about apical third, mid tibia in apical third, and hind tibia in apical fourth to fifth, white ( Figs 68, 69 ); tarsi white, fifth segment of fore and hind tarsi yellowish brown; mid tibial spur white. Gaster dark brown; TI with bluish shine, other tergites largely bronzy violet; third valvula brown to dark brown, with apex in a very small, hardly discernible, area brownish yellow to yellow.

Head dorsum about 2.5× as broad as long; frontovertex width 0.3× head width ( Fig. 64 ); antennal torulus situated slightly below lower margin of eye, and removed from mouth margin by a distance equal to torulus height; head, in profile, with eye height slightly less than eye length (13.5:14), and 1.12× as high as malar space. Mandible with two teeth and a truncation ( Fig. 65 ). Antenna ( Fig. 63 ) with scape about 3.5× as long as broad; pedicel slightly longer than F1–F3 combined; F1–F4 transverse, F5 and F6 quadrate; clava slightly longer than funicle. Proportions of mesosomal tergites and sculpture as in Fig. 67 . Fore wing ( Fig. 66 ) 2.33× as long as broad; postmarginal vein 0.45× marginal vein, the latter 1.4× as long as stigmal vein. Gaster with ovipositor slightly exserted, in cardmounted specimens about 0.3× gaster length, but in slide-mounted specimens, much shorter; ovipositor 1.3× as long as mid tibia; third valvula length 0.4× second valvifer length, and subequal in length to mid tibial spur.

Material examined. KSA: AL-BAHA: Qunfudah, i–iv.2011, (MT), Coll.: S. Qahtani (3 ♀, one on slide, EH.1492); Qunfudah, vi.2012, (MT), Coll. Z. Ahmad (4 ♀, one on slide, EH.1707) ( ZDAMU).

Distribution. Republic of South Africa; Saudi Arabia (present record): Al-Baha.

Comments. This species was described ( Compere & Annecke 1961) from a holotype, and two females not designated as paratypes ( Annecke & Mynhardt 1970b). Later, Annecke & Mynhardt (1970b), not only recorded the males, but discussed in detail variation in several characters based on a large number of females (423), and also provided figures (their figs 24–32). Because of some doubts pertaining to leg colour, MH wrote to Dr. Noyes (BMNH, London). He informed MH that in the holotype of H. obscura , the mid tibia has its apical one-fifth pale yellow; the third valvula (= gonostylus) in Annecke identified specimens is completely dark brown, whereas in the holotype the apex of the third valvula is quite widely yellow as in the paratypes of H. occidua Annecke & Mynhardt. The mid tibia in H. occidua is completely dark brown. It appears that, in addition to several characters, the colour of the third valvula is also variable in this species. Thus, there is no doubt that the Saudi Arabian specimens belong to H. obscura .

Figures

FIGURES 63 – 69. Habrolepis obscura Compere & Annecke. Female: 63, antenna; 64, head, frontal view; 65, mandible; 66, fore wing; 67, mesosoma; 68, mid tibia with tarsus; 69, hind tibia with tarsus.