Heptascelio striatosternus Narendran & Ramesh Babu

Johnson, Norman F., Masner, Lubomír, Musetti, Luciana, Noort, Simon Van, K, Rajmohana, Darling, Christopher & Polaszek, Antonia Guidotti Andrew, 2008, Revision of world species of the genus Heptascelio Kieffer (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea, Platygastridae), Zootaxa 1776, pp. 1-51 : 25-27

Heptascelio striatosternus Narendran & Ramesh Babu

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http://www.morphbank.net/?id=224256

http://atbi.biosci.ohio-state.edu/HymOnline/map-large.html?id=233774 57. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:specimen:F7949E10-CC80-4831-8AAF-60A9363AC10B Figures 73–84; Morphbank58 Heptascelio striatosternus Narendran & Ramesh Babu, 1996: 90 , 92 (original description, keyed); Rajmohana, 2006: 125 (description, keyed).

Heptascelio punctisternus Narendran & Ramesh Babu, 1996: 90 , 91 (original description, keyed); Rajmohana, 2006: 125 (description, keyed). New synonymy.

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Description. Female body length: 3.6–4.3 mm (n=20). Male body length: 3.4–4.2 mm (n=19). Body color of female: entirely dark, dark brown to black. Color of female antenna: brown to dark brown throughout. Color of wing membrane: with weak general brown infuscation, longitudinal dark streak below submarginal vein moderately developed. Color of legs: coxae and femora dark brown, otherwise brown. Body color of male: entirely black. Color of male antenna: A1–A5 brown, A6–A12 pale brown.

Sculpture of occiput and posterior vertex: areolate rugose, with distinct transverse tendency. Sculpture of frons below ocellus in female: areolate rugose. Shape of dorsal margin of frontal scrobe: evenly arcuate, weakly produced. Sculpture of frontal depression in female: transversely striate ventrally, with smooth field dorsomedially. Sculpture of gena: with irregular dorsoventral rugae. Setation of gena: with numerous strong, erect, dark bristles amid shorter setation. Shape of mandibles: normal length, crossed transversely below head when closed, tips overlapping.

Sculpture of dorsal pronotum: areolate rugose, with distinct longitudinal tendency. Notaulus: absent or obscured by coarse surface sculpture. Sculpture of mesoscutum in female: longitudinally strigose, with strong transverse sculpture in interspaces. Sculpture of mesoscutum in male: longitudinally strigose, with strong transverse sculpture in interspaces. Parapsidal line: absent. Mesoscutellum shape: roughly trapezoidal, sides weakly converging apically, apex excavate, with distinct median longitudinal furrow. Sculpture of female mesoscutellum: areolate rugose. Scutellar points of female: forming short, acute teeth. Sculpture of male mesoscutellum: areolate rugose. Scutellar points of male: flattened, broadly rounded apically. Posterior surface of propodeum: with distinct straight longitudinal paramedian keel arising from apex of inner propodeal projection. Length of outer propodeal projection in female: moderately elongate, not reaching midpoint of length of T1, subequal in length to inner propodeal projection. Sculpture of propodeum between inner and outer propodeal projections: coarsely punctate. Netrion shape: narrow, gradually widened ventrally, foveae on surface distinctly wider than high. Netrion setation: densely setose. Sculpture of lateral pronotum posterior to epomial carina: with large smooth field dorsally, elsewhere finely rugulose. Setation of posterior half of lateral pronotum: with numerous scattered setae, densest near spiracle. Sculpture of mesopleural scrobe: smooth. Sculpture of lower mesepisternum: rugulose to punctate. Sculpture of metapleuron: with smooth field medially, elsewhere coarsely punctate. Fore wing venation: well-developed, with R, r-rs clearly visible. Submarginal vein bristles: with dark bristles extending length of submarginal vein. Long dark bristles on legs: present on all femora, tibiae.

T1 depression: moderately to densely setose. Sublateral lamella on T1: distinctly raised more or less perpendicular to T1. Sculpture of T2–T4: longitudinally striate, with fine cross striae, punctures, smooth or finely punctulate transverse band apically. Setation of laterotergites: setose. Sculpture of S2, S3 of female: strongly longitudinally rugose. Sculpture of S2, S3 of male: longitudinal rugulae largely effaced, strongest laterally, otherwise smooth with scattered setigerous punctures. Distribution of felt fields: present on S2–S3.

Diagnosis. The other species of Heptascelio with the long dark bristles on the legs are H. orarius , H. aquilinus and H. dispar . Heptascelio striatosternus , in the female sex, may be distinguished by the strong longitudinal rugae on the metasomal sternites (Fig. 81) and, in the male sex, by the densely setose netrion (Figs.

http://www.morphbank.net/?id=224255 74, 80, 84).

Link to Distribution Map.59

Material Examined. Holotype female, H. striatosternus : INDIA: Kerala, Kuriarkutty, 1989, Narendran T.C. ( USNM)60. Holotype male, H. punctisternus : INDIA: Kerala, Calicut, University campus, 1988, Narendran T.C. ( USNM)61. Other material: INDIA: 5 specimens, OSUC 207743 ( BMNH); ZSI/ WGRS /INV. 1816– 1819 ( WGRS). MADAGASCAR: 1 female, OSUC 170972 ( USNM). NEPAL: 1 female, OSUC 210318 ( BPBM). SRI LANKA: 18 males, 17 females, OSUC 207744 ( BMNH); OSUC 209170, 209171 ( CNCI); OSUC 209147, 186124 ( OSUC); OSUC 186125, 209139–209146, 209148–209169 ( USNM).

Comments. The two species described by Narendran & Ramesh Babu (1996) were both based upon single specimens, one a male ( H. punctisternus , Figs. 82–84) and the other a female ( H. striatosternus , Figs. 79– 81). The original description of H. punctisternus has a small typographical error: it states that the holotype is a female. Elsewhere in the paper it is clear that, in fact, it is a male. The identification key distinguishes between the two, first, on the basis of the sculpture of the metasomal sternites, distinctly striate in H. striatosternus (Fig. 81) and “with distinct small setigerous pits, not distinctly striate” in H. punctisternus (Fig. 82). This difference is quite easily appreciated when the two specimens are examined. The next character in the couplet, the length of the longest hair on the distal end of the pedicel (A2, Fig. 84) is a significant observation. In H. punctisternus there is an extremely elongate, relatively thick, and distinctively curved seta arising from the ventral side of A2. This structure has not before been reported in Platygastridae . However, it is present in all male specimens of Heptascelio and only in males. Thus, this distinction serves only to separate sexes and not species. The remaining quantitative characters, the ratio of the lengths of A1 and A2 and the distance between the ocellus and scrobal margin are also significant only in distinguishing sexes.

The sculpture of the metasomal sternites is the only significant feature distinguishing the two nominal species. The USNM has a relatively long series of Heptascelio collected in Sri Lanka. Among these, the difference in sternal sculpture is well developed, but, again, it is perfectly correlated with the sex of the specimens: striate in females, punctate in males. Thus, we conclude, first, that this too is a sexually dimorphic character and, second, that the two concepts, H. striatosternus and H. punctisternus , are synonymous. Since both were described in the same paper, we have arbitrarily selected the name H. striatosternus to be the valid name for this species.

The distribution of known specimens of H. striatosternus is concentrated in south India (Kerala) and Sri Lanka. However, there are two additional specimens that significantly expand its “known” distribution. One is from Madagascar, and the specimen is extremely similar to freshly mounted specimens from Sri Lanka. These have erect body bristles and make a striking impression. The remaining specimens from Sri Lanka have these bristles semi-decumbent. However, this material is fairly dirty and it appears that it may also be thinly covered with some sort of residue. Thus, we decided not to emphasize the bristles, but in the future this character should be examined. The second geographical extreme is a specimen from Nepal. In comparison to the other material, this specimen is rather less robust and a bit more elongate. We judged the difference to be insignificant given the tremendous distance between Kerala and Nepal. Further collections in India, though, may help to determine if there is a gradual or an abrupt change in body form across the subcontinent.