Dicopomorpha zebra Huber, 2009

Huber, John, 2009, The genus Dicopomorpha (Hymenoptera, Mymaridae) in Africa and a key to Alaptus-group genera, ZooKeys 20 (20), pp. 233-244 : 236-243

Dicopomorpha zebra Huber , sp. n.

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Type material. Holotype female ( BMNH) on slide (Fig. 2) labelled: 1. “Nigeria: Oyo, Ibadan, IITA compound, XI.1987, J.S. Noyes, Malaise trap ”. 2. “ Dicopomorpha zebra Huber ♀ dorsal Holotype ” . Paratypes: 11 females, 1 male ( BMNH, CNC). GABON: 15–25 km N. Libreville, Forêt de la Mondah, 25 and 26. XI– 3.XII.1987, J.S. Noyes (3 females). IVORY COAST: Lamto, ca. 160 km NW Abijan, 5°02’W 6°13’N, XI.1988, J.S. Noyes, XI.1988 (6 females) and 17.VII.1988 (1 female). NIGERIA: Oyo, Ibadan, IITA compound, XI.1987, J.S. Noyes (1 female, 1 male).

Diagnosis. The scape with two distinct, transverse, white bands and the pedicel white, contrasting with the brown flagellum (Figs 1, 5) distinguish this species from other (mostly undescribed) Dicopomorpha species.

Description. Female. Body length 285–585 (n = 8, critical point dried specimens). Body (Fig. 1) shiny dark brown dorsally, with a faint but distinct mother-ofpearl (blue and green) sheen, especially on vertex and dorsum of mesosoma; head below eyes and between toruli yellowish; gaster lighter ventrally; coxae, trochanters, and parts of femora and tarsi lighter, almost white; scape with two transverse white bands; pedicel white.

Head (Figs 3, 4). Head width 1.4 × length, and length about 1.0 × height. Sculpture generally reticulate but shallow on face and gena, very faint on polished vertex (Fig. 3). Face in lateral view (Fig. 4) strongly angular and produced forward of anterior

Figure Ι. Dicopomorpha zebra Huber , paratype female, habitus. Scale = 0.1 mm.

margin of eye, with a slightly undulating, sharp-edged junction separating a short, almost horizontal dorsal surface (bearing the toruli) from a strongly receding ventral surface. Vertex (Fig. 3) slightly curving to transverse trabecula anteriorly, its posterior margin concave and forming a sharp angle with occiput; median ocellus about its own diameter from posterior margin of vertex, lateral ocelli at posterolateral corners of vertex. Eye large, extending posteriorly to occiput in dorsal third, separated ventrally from occiput by increasingly widened gena; malar space slightly less than half eye height, with 2 setae. Face with 2 setae on dorsal surface between toruli, 2 setae on ventral

Figures 2–4. Dicopomorpha zebra 2 holotype slide, actual size 3 holotype female, body, dorsal 4 paratype female, body, lateral. Scale = 0.1 mm.

surface sublaterally just below junction with dorsal surface, and about 5 setae laterally along margin with eye and malar space; vertex with 2 minute setae behind median ocellus and 1 longer seta next to each lateral ocellus; occiput with 1 submedian dorsal setae just ventral to junction with vertex.

Antenna (Fig. 5). Scape usually with a prominent bulge ventrally in basal third beyond radicle, then narrowing to apex; radicle not separated from scape by a groove; pedicel almost 2x as long as wide; funicle 7-segmented; fl 2 quadrate, much shorter than remaining funicle segments, in particular fl 1 and fl 3; clava as long as fl 4 –fl 7 and fairly wide. Measurements (length/width) of antennal segments (holotype): scape 206/47, pedicel 51/30, fl 1 50/11, fl 2 11/11, fl 3 57/14, fl 4 40/15, fl 5 43/17, fl 6 34/15, fl 7 37/19, clava 154/55. Clava with 3 longitudinal sensilla.

Mesosoma (Figs 1, 3, 4). Length slightly greater than width, with sculpture very faint, at most moderately visible on posterior scutellum (Fig. 3); most setae minute, barely visible. Pronotum extremely short and almost membranous medially, not visible

Figures 5–6. Dicopomorpha zebra , holotype 5 antenna 6 wings. Scale = 0.1 mm.

Figures 7–ΙΙ. Mimalaptus victoria (Girault) 7 holotype slide, actual size (together with holotype of Gonatocerus spinozai Girault ; arrow indicates holotype of M. victoria ) 8 holotype mesosoma + metasoma, dorsal 9 head, anterior + antennae (specimen on slide 2 in Dahms, 1986: 633) Ι0 fore wing (same specimen as Fig. 9). ΙΙ holotype, antenna. Scale = 0.1 mm.

Figures Ι2–Ι9. Dicopus longipes (Subba Rao) , holotype (except as noted) Ι2 body, habitus Ι3 head, anterior (arrow indicates mandible) Ι4 body, dorsal Ι5 body, lateral (paratype, female) Ι6 antennae (paratype, female) Ι7 antenna (paratype, male) Ι 8 holotype slide, actual size Ι9 wings (right forewing + left hindwing). Scale = 0.1 mm.

in dorsal view (Fig. 3); mesoscutum shiny (Fig. 3), with very faint sculpture, the lateral lobe prominent with 1 seta at lateral angle, and midlobe with 1 seta medially and 1 seta posteriorly near notaulus; axilla with 2 setae medially and posteriorly; anterior scutellum slightly longer than posterior scutellum medially, but shorter laterally, with the placoid sensilla widely separated and 1 seta just lateral to each sensillum; dorsellum short, about one-third length of posterior scutellum; propodeum short, slightly more than half length of posterior scutellum, the propodeal seta less than two spiracle diameters from spiracle.

Wings (Fig. 6). Fore wing with brown suffusion except behind base of marginal vein and an oval clear area beyond venation in apical quarter, disc without microtrichia except for the usual two rows along anterior and posterior margins. Hypochaeta near apex of submarginal vein; proximal macrochaeta absent, distal macrochaeta at apex of marginal vein at point where vein thins as stigmal vein. Hind wing with uniform brown suffusion, the membrane slightly and gradually widening towards rounded apex, with 1 row of microtrichia along hind margin. Fore wing length (holotype) 573, width 60, longest marginal setae 199, venation length 200. Hind wing length 569, width 19, longest marginal setae 154, venation length 150.

Legs. Normal, with 5 tarsomeres.

Metasoma (Figs 3, 4). Slightly shorter than mesosoma, in dorsal view almost globular but with a distinctly sloping anterior face separated by a sharp ridge from posterodorsal face; the terga in dorsal view (Fig. 3) strongly oblique, arranged in a V-shaped pattern and except for gt 7 appearing divided medially; with about 12 setae (2 on each of gt 2 –gt 6, apparently) along the sharp ridge; cercal setae long (about 255) and curved; spiracle apparently absent. Ovipositor 345, equal in length to metatibia.

Male. Body length 426 (n=1, critical point dried). Body brown except gaster light brown and base of scape white. Antennal length 1064, 2.5 times length of entire body, apparently with 9 flagellar segments; each flagellomere about 5 × as long as wide; fl 4 length100.

Variation. Three of the paratypes from Lamto have the scape narrower basally and the white bands less distinct (Fig. 1) than in the other types.

Derivation of species name. Named after the mammal; a noun in apposition referring to the distinctively striped scape of the female antenna.

Discussion. Initially, I considered that D. zebra represented a new genus related to Dicopomorpha because the funicle is 7-segmented in females and the 2-toothed mandibles cross over when closed, but it exhibits several features that appeared to be very different from other species classified in the genus: 1) the body, especially the vertex and mesosoma, with a faint but distinct mother-of-pearl sheen and scarcely any visible sculpture or setae, 2) the head in lateral view strongly angular, the face distinctly projecting forward in front of eyes, 3) the fore wing distinctly curved, with the hind margin concave distally and with almost no microtrichia on disc except along margins, and 4) the short, almost globular metasoma with strongly oblique, V-shaped terga. However, study of a diversity of mostly undescribed species from five continents failed to yield a single feature could be used to distinguish unequivocally my proposed genus. One or more of the features listed above occur in one or more other species that clearly belong to Dicopomorpha . Indeed, it was not even worth segregating D. zebra into a new subgenus, though it might be worth treating it as a representative of a species group defined by the relatively wide and apically curved fore wing. The generic synonymy in the species list above already suggested not only that Dicopomoropha is morphologically diverse but also showed that it was easily confused with related genera. To propose yet more genera would begin (again) a trend to oversplit Dicopomorpha , which could result in the unfortunate situation of more and more finely divided genera whose limits could not be determined with certainty.

Acknowledgments

I thank J. Noyes (BMNH) for loaning the types of Kubja longipes and specimens of Dicopomorpha for study. J. Read is gratefully acknowledged for preparing the images and compiling the plates of illustrations.