Pristomerus melissa Rousse, Villemant & Seyrig, 2013

Rousse, Pascal & Noort, Simon van, 2015, Revision of the Afrotropical species of Pristomerus (Ichneumonidae: Cremastinae), with descriptions of 31 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 124, pp. 1-129 : 71-73

Pristomerus melissa Rousse, Villemant & Seyrig, 2013

Fig. 22

Diagnosis

Moderate size; head dark brown to black with clypeus, mandible, malar space and palpi pale yellow; remainder of body mostly yellow to yellowish-orange with black markings on tergite 1 and apical half of tergite 2; face densely and evenly punctate-granulate; inner margins of eyes subparallel; clypeus strongly transverse, shallowly and sparsely punctate; malar line moderately long; remainder of head coriaceous; occipital carina joining hypostomal carina slightly above mandible base; antenna with 35 flagellomeres, penultimate flagellomere elongate; mesosoma distinctly elongate; entirely densely punctate to punctate-granulate, with most of pronotum and ventral half of speculum smooth; area superomedia elongate and laterally not delimited beyond anterior transverse carina; female femoral tooth small; ovipositor short, slightly sinuous apically. B 6.6; A 5.3; F 5.1; CT 2.2; ML 0.6; POL 0.8; OOL 0.8; Fl n–1 1.1; ASM 2.3; OT 1.0; FFT 1. Male unknown.

Differential diagnosis

Mostly yellowish orange with upper head black; differentiated from all other Pristomerus species by the combination of the colour pattern (entire face black and entire mesosoma yellowish-orange), the numerous flagellomeres, the area superomedia hardly delimited postero-laterally, and the short ovipositor.

Material examined

Holotype

MADAGASCAR: ♀, “ MADAGASCAR, Mandraka forest , IV.32, EY 0000002494” ( MNHN).

Distribution

Madagascar.

Figures

Fig. 22. Pristomerus melissa Rousse, Villemant & Seyrig, 2013. Holotype, ♀. A. Habitus, lateral view. B. Head, mesosoma, dorsal view. C. Head, anterior view. D. Propodeum, dorsal view. E. Mesosoma, lateral view. F. Hind tibia, lateral view (inset: data labels).